In a new plea agreement with U.S. authorities, a unit of Swiss bank, Credit Suisse AG, admitted to further offshore tax offences.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Credit Suisse Services AG agreed to pay more than US$510 million in penalties, restitution, forfeiture and fines to resolve allegations that it helped U.S. taxpayers hide over US$4 billion in assets and income from the U.S. tax authorities in offshore accounts.
In addition to its guilty plea, the firm also entered a non-prosecution agreement with the DoJ’s tax division concerning U.S. accounts that were booked at Credit Suisse AG Singapore, which held over US$2 billion in assets for U.S. taxpayers between 2014 and mid-2023.
These accounts were discovered by UBS AG, following its acquisition of Credit Suisse in 2023, the DoJ said. UBS froze some of the accounts and voluntarily disclosed information about the accounts to U.S. authorities, it noted.
According to the plea, the non-prosecution agreement and court filings, between Jan. 1, 2010 and July 2021, Credit Suisse helped certain U.S. taxpayers conceal their ownership and control of assets and funds held at the bank by opening and maintaining undeclared offshore accounts, and providing a variety of offshore private banking services.
“Among other fraudulent acts, bankers at Credit Suisse falsified records, processed fictitious donation paperwork and serviced more than US$1 billion in accounts without documentation of tax compliance,” the DoJ said — adding that this breached the firm’s previous plea agreement that was signed back in May 2014.
These latest resolutions with U.S. authorities require Credit Suisse (and, by extension, UBS) to cooperate fully with ongoing investigations and disclose any further information that it uncovers about illicit offshore accounts to U.S. authorities.
In a statement, UBS said that it “was not involved in the underlying conduct and has zero tolerance for tax evasion.”
“With this resolution, UBS is pleased to have resolved another of Credit Suisse’s legacy issues, in line with UBS’s intention to resolve legacy matters at pace in a fair and balanced way and in the best interest of all its stakeholders,” it said.
The bank will also record a charge in the second quarter of 2025 in relation to the resolution.