The US Senate Finance Committee has accused Credit Suisse of aiding wealthy Americans in concealing their assets from tax authorities, even after a unit of the Swiss bank had pleaded guilty to tax evasion conspiracy almost a decade ago.
The committee found that the bank had breached the $2.6bn (£2.1bn) plea deal it had reached with the US Justice Department in 2014.
This further harms Credit Suisse, which was recently acquired by UBS. The committee chair, Senator Ron Wyden, described the case as a “massive, ongoing conspiracy to help ultra-wealthy US citizens to evade taxes and rip off their fellow Americans”.
The report suggested an “ongoing criminal tax conspiracy” involving nearly $100m in offshore accounts belonging to a family of dual US-Latin American citizens.
In response, Credit Suisse claimed that it has a zero-tolerance policy for tax evasion and that its new management is cooperating with the Justice Department, adding that it would close undeclared accounts and take disciplinary action against any employee who failed to follow bank policy or meet the bank’s conduct standards.
