The use of a Swiss bank to evade taxes in the United States by wealthy individuals
US lawmakers say Credit Suisse broke the plea deal it made in 2014.
The US Senate Finance Committee said on Wednesday that the Swiss bank Credit Suisse is helping wealthy Americans avoid paying taxes, even though the bank had said before that it would crack down.
In 2014, Credit Suisse admitted that it had broken the law by helping wealthy US clients hide money in accounts outside of the country to avoid paying taxes. As part of the deal, the bank promised to go after people who try to avoid paying taxes.
But a two-year investigation by the committee showed that the bank did not follow the rules.
The investigation claims to have found “major violations of that plea agreement,” such as a “previously unknown, ongoing, and possibly criminal conspiracy” in which a single family of American taxpayers kept almost $100 million in secret offshore accounts and didn’t tell anyone about them.
The report says that the amount of money that was hidden in violation of the 2014 plea deal is more than $700 million.
“Credit Suisse got a discount on the fine it was supposed to pay in 2014 for helping people avoid paying taxes because bank executives swore they’d stop trying to cheat the U.S. “This investigation shows that Credit Suisse did not keep that promise,” said Ron Wyden, who is in charge of the Senate Finance Committee.
The Swiss government had to save Credit Suisse early this month because, among other issues, it had lost billions of dollars. The rival bank UBS paid about $3.25 billion to buy the bank.
