Two men sit under a sign of Credit Suisse displayed on a building in Lugano, on June 9, 2023.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images
Credit Suisse Services AG will pay about $511 million to settle a criminal case for having conspired with American taxpayers to hide more than $4 billion in at least 475 offshore accounts, the Department of Justice said Monday.
The conspiracy allowed “ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth individual clients” of the Swiss financial services corporation to evade their U.S. tax obligations from 2010 through 2021, the DOJ said.
“In doing so, Credit Suisse AG committed new crimes and breached its May 2014 plea agreement with the United States,” the department said.
The company pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to aid and assist in the preparation of false income tax returns in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.
In addition to that plea, Credit Suisse entered into a non-prosecution agreement with prosecutors in connection with U.S. accounts that were booked at Credit Suisse AG Singapore.
“Between 2014 and June 2023, Credit Suisse AG Singapore held undeclared accounts for U.S. persons, which Credit Suisse AG Singapore knew or should have known were U.S., with total assets valued at over $2 billion,” the DOJ said.
“Credit Suisse AG Singapore failed to adequately identify the true beneficial owners of accounts and failed to conduct adequate inquiry about U.S. indicia in the accounts,” the department said.
“In 2023, during the post-merger of UBS AG Singapore and Credit Suisse AG Singapore, UBS became aware of accounts held at Credit Suisse AG Singapore that appeared to be undeclared U.S. accounts. UBS froze some of the accounts, voluntarily disclosed information about those identified accounts to the Justice Department and cooperated by undertaking an investigation into the identified accounts.”
Credit Suisse’s parent company, the Swiss bank UBS, in a statement, said it was “not involved in the underlying conduct and has zero tolerance for tax evasion.” UBS acquired Credit Suisse in 2023.
“With this resolution, UBS is pleased to have resolved another of Credit Suisse’s legacy issues, in line with UBS’s intention to resolve legacy matters at pace in a fair and balanced way and in the best interest of all its stakeholders,” the bank said.
“In the second quarter of 2025, UBS Group AG expects to recognize a credit from the partial release of the contingent liability established with the acquisition of Credit Suisse as part of the purchase price allocation process,” the statement said. “UBS AG expects to record a charge in the second quarter in relation to this resolution.”
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