The outlook for Credit Suisse darkened on Friday after the Swiss bank revealed it had been formally placed under investigation by the US authorities over allegations it helped rich American people evade tax
The outlook for Credit Suisse darkened on Friday after the Swiss bank revealed it had been formally placed under investigation by the US authorities over allegations it helped rich American people evade tax.
The move marked a significant escalation in a near four-year battle between the US and Switzerland over the alleged role of some Swiss private banks in helping US clients with undeclared offshore accounts to avoid taxation.
In February 2009, Switzerland’s UBS, the world’s second biggest wealth manager by client assets, agreed to pay $780m to settle US investigations into its Switzerland-based private bankers working for US clients. As part of a broader deal in what eventually escalated into a diplomatic tussle between Washington and Bern, the bank was obliged to hand over the names of almost 5,000 American clients with offshore accounts to the US authorities.
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Legal action in the US against those customers, along with voluntary self declarations by thousands of other Americans with undeclared offshore accounts, subsequently prompted the US authorities to extend their inquiries into other Swiss banks.
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