Former Credit Suisse Group AG bankers have told criminal investigators that the bank is still helping U.S. clients hide accounts from the Internal Revenue Service, even after the firm paid $2.6 billion in penalties in 2014 and promised to stop the practice.
Those bankers “have come forward with credible information that Credit Suisse continued to assist additional Americans with concealing assets from the United States after 2014,” according to a Nov. 18 filing in a civil lawsuit. “In some instances, the concealment is ongoing today.”
The latest allegations of wrongdoing come during a tumultuous year for the Zurich-based bank, which lost $5.5 billion in the blowup of family office Archegos Capital Management and had to unwind client funds that were managed with collapsed lender Greensill Capital. It also is happening weeks after the U.S. Justice Department vowed to crack down on corporations that repeatedly violate the law.
The bankers who came forward said that Credit Suisse opened accounts for South American clients who held dual citizenship, but bank documents failed to indicate they were U.S. citizens, according to people familiar with the matter. Some of the accounts held tens of millions of dollars, the people said. U.S. taxpayers are supposed to pay taxes on income earned anywhere in the world, and disclose their offshore accounts to the Treasury Department, even if they have dual citizenship.
