A two-year investigation by the US Senate Finance Committee found that embattled Swiss bank Credit Suisse has breached a 2014 plea deal agreed with the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Lawmakers on Wednesday said the bank helped ultra-wealthy American clients to avoid taxes by hiding over $700 million in undeclared accounts.
US Committee Reports Deal Breach
Additionally, the Committee found that about $100 million belonging to a single family of US-Latin American citizens was hidden in secret offshore accounts for nearly a decade without being disclosed to US tax authorities. It described this as an “ongoing potentially criminal conspiracy.” In addition, the Committee believes the bank helped a US businessman conceal over $220 million in offshore accounts from the US Internal Revenue Service, Reuters reports.
In 2014, Credit Suisse paid a discounted fine to the DOJ after pleading guilty to aiding clients’ tax evasion and agreeing to report undeclared accounts and other information to US authorities. However, the Committee said Credit Suisse only informed it days ago of 23 accounts containing over $20 million not decelerated for taxation.
Responding to the development, Credit Suisse told Reuters it does not accommodate tax evasion and has been cooperating with officials in the US. In addition, the Swiss bank told the Associated Press that the said evasion was a long-standing issue that had been addressed long ago.
Credit Suisse Faces New Headwind
Earlier this month, rival bank UBS agreed to purchase Credit Suisse, whose financial woes worsened recently over US bank failures, for CHF 3 billion in a deal expected to be closed by the end of 2023. The US Senate Finance Committee report emerged on the same day UBS announced it was recalling Sergio P. Ermotti, its former CEO, to oversee the complex acquisition of Credit Suisse, the second-largest Swiss lender.
It remains unclear if the new US Comittee report will have an effect on USB acquisition procedures. The new US report is Credit Suisse’s latest baggage with US authorities after it paid $495 million in October last year to settle issues with its mortgage-backed securities business operated in the build-up to the 2008 financial crisis.
Recently, the bank faced criminal trials in Switzerland for allegedly allowing a Bulgarian drug trafficker to launder illicitly gained money. The bank was found guilty in the case, which was the first criminal trial of a Swiss bank.
The merger of UBS and Credit Suisse is expected to create a Swiss megabank with over $5 trillion in total invested assets.
OpenFin Adds Dow Jones; Quantile Taps SwapAgent FX, read today's news nuggets.