Swiss bank
Report: Credit Suisse had criminals as clients
The Swiss bank Credit Suisse is said to have criminal clients. Photo: Gaetan Bally/KEYSTONE/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
War criminals, autocrats, human traffickers and drug dealers are said to be on Credit Suisse’s client list. The bank wants to analyze the allegations.
According to a media report, the Swiss bank Credit Suisse has accepted autocrats, drug dealers and suspected war criminals and human traffickers as customers for years.
According to research by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, this is confirmed by data from the financial institution, which the newspaper says it was leaked from an anonymous source. The “SZ” evaluated the documents together with the NDR and WDR as well as several other international media partners, including “Guardian”, “Le Monde” and “New York Times”.
The bank vehemently denied the allegations. It is mostly about cases that date back to the 1940s. “The presentation (…) is based on incomplete, inaccurate or selective information that has been taken out of context, leading to biased interpretations of the bank’s business conduct,” the bank said on Sunday evening. 90 percent of the accounts listed have already been closed. “We will continue to analyze the matter and, if necessary, take further steps,” the bank continued.
According to the report, the documents reveal the accounts of more than 30,000 customers from around the world. According to the data, criminals could have opened accounts or kept accounts even “if the bank could have known long ago that they were dealing with criminals”.
Siemens managers are also among the customers
According to the research, the data includes a former Siemens manager. At times, he had six accounts with Credit Suisse. According to the data, assets worth more than 54 million Swiss francs (currently around 51.66 million euros) were entered on one of them as a high in 2006 – a sum that cannot be explained with his Siemens salary. At the request of the research association, the ex-manager reportedly denied misconduct without explaining where the millions came from.
According to the media, Credit Suisse did not want to answer specific questions about this case or the other questionable accounts, but assured that it would follow the “highest standards of conduct”. When asked by telephone by the dpa, a spokeswoman did not want to comment on Sunday.
According to internal bank data, numerous heads of state and government, ministers and heads of intelligence services, as well as oligarchs and cardinals, were clients of Credit Suisse.
“I believe that Swiss banking secrecy is immoral,” said the source of the Suisse Secrets data, which is unknown to “SZ” and its research partners, according to the report. “The pretense of protecting financial privacy is just a fig leaf to cover up the shameful role of Swiss banks as collaborators with tax evaders.”
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Credit Suisse data was evaluated together with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and 46 media partners from all over the world.