Credit Suisse has agreed to plead guilty to US charges related to helping wealthy Americans avoid taxes, coupled with a payment exceeding $510 million.
The bank’s services division was sentenced on Monday for colluding to conceal over $4 billion from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) through at least 475 offshore accounts, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.
This plea comes from Credit Suisse, which has managed an account in Singapore for US taxpayers utilizing offshore accounts to evade American tax regulations, as the Justice Department noted.
The statement highlighted that among various infractions, Credit Suisse bankers falsified records, processed nonexistent donations, and handled accounts exceeding $1 billion without the required tax compliance documentation. “In doing so, Credit Suisse AG committed another crime, violating a legal agreement established in May 2014,” the Justice Department emphasized.
Back in 2014, Credit Suisse made headlines as it admitted to US criminal charges and agreed to a hefty $2.5 billion fine, marking a long-standing assistance to Americans in evading taxes.
Prior to this settlement, the 2023 US Senate Treasury Committee discovered that Credit Suisse breached its 2014 agreement by continuing to facilitate tax evasion, successfully hiding more than $700 million from the government.
UBS, which purchased Credit Suisse earlier this year, stated that the service division formally pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges centered around providing assistance in filing false income tax returns.
UBS also clarified that it did not participate in any foundational actions taken before the acquisition.
Alongside the guilty plea and financial penalties, Credit Suisse has entered into a non-predictive agreement mandating cooperation between IT and UBS during the ongoing investigation, ensuring the disclosure of any information related to US-affiliated accounts, as per the Justice Department.
