U.S. lawmakers say Credit Suisse kept allowing wealthy Americans to dodge tax payments, finding after a two-year investigation that the embattled Swiss bank violated a 2014 plea agreement it entered for enabling tax evasion.
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday pointed to a possible criminal conspiracy tied to nearly $100 million in secret offshore accounts belonging to one family of American taxpayers that the bank didn’t disclose.
The committee said its findings show that more than $700 million was concealed in violation of Credit Suisse’s 9-year-old plea deal.
“Credit Suisse got a discount on the penalty it faced in 2014 for enabling tax evasion because bank executives swore up and down they’d get out of the business of defrauding the United States,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democratic chairman of the committee. “This investigation shows Credit Suisse did not make good on that promise, and the bank’s pending acquisition does not wipe the slate clean.”
The Swiss government and regulators pressed for a $3.25 billion takeover of long-troubled Credit Suisse by its rival bank UBS amid turmoil in the global financial system. The collapse of two U.S. banks unleashed fears that hit Switzerland’s second-largest bank, whose shares tanked and customers pulled out their money.