Swiss bankers tried to hide the extent to which they helped the Nazis store looted assets during World War II, according to a report, by placing account information in a secret file marked “American Blacklist”. I kept it.
Investigators combing the archives of failed financier Credit Suisse uncovered several Nazi-linked bank accounts that were never disclosed in the 1990s investigation that led to a $1 billion reparations agreement with Holocaust survivors. I discovered it. According to the Wall Street Journal.
Examining the records, researchers also found evidence of accounts believed to be controlled by Nazi SS officials and Swiss intermediaries and used to move and store looted assets, the magazine reported.
Credit Suisse maintained bank accounts controlled by known Nazis – details of which were stamped with the words “American Blacklist” and intended to be hidden from law enforcement authorities. The magazine reports.
Investigators found that some of these accounts were used by companies that seized Jewish-owned property and relied on forced labor in concentration camps.
The latest investigation was conducted by former federal prosecutor Neil Barofsky, now a partner at the Manhattan-based law firm Jenner & Block LLP.
In 2021, Credit Suisse hired Mr. Barofsky to conduct an independent investigation after the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, pointed to evidence of possible undisclosed Nazi-linked accounts. hired.
Barofsky accused Credit Suisse bankers of failing to cooperate properly during the investigation.
After Credit Suisse fired Mr. Barofsky after a year on the job, he wrote a report alleging that senior Nazi commanders who defected to Argentina after the war maintained accounts at the bank until 2002.
Barofsky returned to UBS in late 2023 after the bank acquired Credit Suisse as an emergency rescue plan.
After Barofsky was removed from the investigation, the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees the State Department's Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Affairs, accused Credit Suisse of not adequately investigating the allegations raised by the former prosecutor.
“Credit Suisse initially agreed to investigate evidence of previously unidentified Nazi-linked accounts, but information we received shows that the bank set an unnecessarily strict and narrow scope. “They refused to follow up on new leads that came to light during the investigation,” said top Republican committee member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Written in April 2023.
Last month, Mr. Barofsky sent a letter to the U.S. Senate stating that UBS and Credit Suisse had provided full access to the archives and that a team of more than 50 people had been assigned to investigate the details.
“The investigation has identified a number of individuals and entities connected to Nazi atrocities whose ties to Credit Suisse have not previously been identified or whose ties have been partially identified. However, the full extent of the bank's involvement had not yet been publicly reported,'' Barofsky wrote in the letter.
Switzerland, which has a long-standing policy of remaining neutral in disputes, has historically been known as a banking hub, with strict laws governing secrecy and confidentiality.
In 1998, Credit Suisse and other Swiss banks issued 12 A settlement of $50 million was agreed.
“UBS is committed to contributing to a robust accounting of Nazi-related legacy accounts previously held by Credit Suisse's predecessor banks,” a bank spokesperson told the Journal.
