The revelations that Credit score Suisse has been utilized by crooks, cash launderers and corrupt politicians are a public relations disaster for the banking large.
However the Suisse secrets and techniques investigation by the Guardian and its reporting companions is just the most recent in a string of controversies to beset Switzerland’s second-largest lender.
We check out a few of the financial institution’s largest scandals over the previous few many years.
1986: Faux names for Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Credit score Suisse is implicated in serving to to retailer a few of the estimated $5bn-$10bn that the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his spouse, Imelda, stole from the nation throughout his three phrases as president.
It later emerged that Credit score Suisse opened accounts for the couple beneath the pretend names “William Saunders” and “Jane Ryan”, serving to to defend their funds from scrutiny.
In 1995, a Zurich court docket ordered banks, together with Credit score Suisse, to return $500m of stolen funds to the Philippines.
1999: Japanese ‘shredding social gathering’
Japanese authorities fined Credit score Suisse and revoked its licence over a “shredding social gathering”, at which bankers destroyed proof associated to an investigation into whether or not it was serving to firms conceal their losses.
A financial institution spokesperson mentioned: “Severe classes have been discovered, corrective actions initiated and disciplinary steps accomplished.”
2000: Banking funds linked to a Nigerian dictator
Switzerland’s Federal Banking Fee reprimanded Credit score Suisse for accepting about $214m-worth of funds linked to corruption by the Nigerian army dictator Sani Abacha within the Nineteen Nineties.
The lender was criticised for failing to recognise that his two sons had been politically uncovered. Credit score Suisse mentioned it had improved its monitoring procedures and employees who handled Abacha’s regime had left the financial institution.
2004: Cash laundering for the Japanese yakuza
A Credit score Suisse banker was arrested for allegedly serving to launder not less than 5bn yen linked to Japan’s largest yakuza gang. The banker was acquitted on the idea that he was unaware of the supply of the funds.
2009: US sanctions breaches
Credit score Suisse was fined $536m for intentionally circumventing US sanctions towards nations together with Iran and Sudan between 1995 and 2007.
The financial institution mentioned it had “enhanced” its procedures and was “taking motion internally”.
2011: German tax evasion
Credit score Suisse agreed to pay €150m to settle an investigation into tax evasion by about 1,100 of its German purchasers.
“A posh and extended authorized dispute has been averted, with an agreed resolution that gives authorized certainty,” the financial institution mentioned.
2012: US sub-prime bond fraud
US authorities charged 4 former Credit score Suisse bankers with fraudulently overstating the worth of $3bn of sub-prime bonds throughout the 2007 credit score disaster.
One former managing director, Kareem Serageldin, was the one particular person jailed in relation to the US monetary disaster.
2014: US tax evasion
Credit score Suisse was fined $2.6bn and pleaded responsible to serving to People evade taxes for many years in one of many financial institution’s most explosive scandals thus far.
The investigation was launched when the previous UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld violated Swiss banking secrecy legal guidelines and handed info to US authorities in 2007.
A Senate investigation uncovered aggressive ways utilized by Swiss banks, with Credit score Suisse having recruited purchasers at high-end occasions, courted a possible buyer with free gold, and even delivered delicate financial institution statements hidden within the pages of a Sports activities Illustrated journal.
Authorities finally pressured Switzerland into unilaterally disclosing account details about US taxpayers from 2014.
Credit score Suisse mentioned: “We deeply remorse the previous misconduct that led to this settlement.”
2016: Italian tax evasion
Credit score Suisse reached a €109.5m settlement with Italian authorities over allegations it helped purchasers conceal funds and dodge taxes by complicated insurance coverage insurance policies, which had been reportedly routed by its Liechtenstein and Bermuda subsidiaries.
Credit score Suisse mentioned it welcomed the deal.
2016: US anti-money-laundering effective
A US regulator fined Credit score Suisse $16.5m after figuring out “vital deficiencies” within the financial institution’s anti-money-laundering programme. The lender mentioned it was “taking acceptable inside remedial efforts”.
2017: Anti-money-laundering effective associated to 1MDB
Singapore’s monetary regulator fined Credit score Suisse $700,000 for breaching money-laundering guidelines in transactions linked to 1MDB, the Malaysian funding fund on the centre of a $4.5bn corruption scandal.
Credit score Suisse mentioned it took its money-laundering obligations severely and was “firmly dedicated to upholding the excessive requirements of the Singapore monetary centre”.
2017: European tax evasion
Authorities raided houses and places of work within the Netherlands and France, and launched investigations into Credit score Suisse staff within the UK, Germany and Australia, in reference to suspected tax evasion involving 55,000 accounts.
Credit score Suisse mentioned it was cooperating with authorities and later took out a collection of adverts in British newspapers declaring that it “applies a strict zero-tolerance coverage” on tax evasion.
2018: Weak controls linked to dealings with Petrobras, PDVSA and Fifa
The Swiss regulator ordered Credit score Suisse to enhance its anti-money-laundering controls after figuring out shortfalls in its dealings with Fifa, the Brazilian oil company Petrobras and Venezuelan state oil firm, PDVSA.
The financial institution mentioned it took its compliance tasks severely.
2018: Lescaudron fraud conviction
A former Credit score Suisse banker, Patrice Lescaudron, was sentenced to 5 years in jail after admitting to forging shopper signatures to divert cash and make inventory bets with out their information, inflicting greater than $150m in losses. His purchasers included the previous Georgian prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who continues to be attempting to recuperate his funds.
Credit score Suisse mentioned the connection supervisor “was not supported by another worker of the Credit score Suisse in his felony actions”.
Lescaudron killed himself in 2020.
2018: Hong Kong jobs-for-business scandal
Credit score Suisse agreed to pay $47m to US authorities over a “corruption scheme” through which it tried to win enterprise by providing jobs to household and pals of Chinese language officers between 2007 and 2013.
A spokesperson for the financial institution mentioned it had improved its compliance processes.
2019: Company espionage
The financial institution was caught in a company espionage scandal, and finally admitted to hiring non-public detectives to trace two outgoing executives. It triggered a regulatory investigation and culminated within the departure of its chief government, Tidjane Thiam, in 2020.
A gaggle of executives had been later discovered to have ordered surveillance in an additional 5 instances between 2016 and 2019.
Credit score Suisse mentioned it had banned surveillance “except required for compelling causes, reminiscent of threats to the bodily security of staff”.
2020: Bulgarian drug trafficking
Swiss prosecutors issued an indictment towards Credit score Suisse for allegedly failing to run correct checks on purchasers and examine the supply of funds linked to a Bulgarian drug ring that allegedly laundered not less than $146m by accounts between 2004 and 2008.
The felony trial, which started in February 2022, is the primary towards a Swiss financial institution within the nation’s historical past.
Credit score Suisse mentioned it could “defend itself vigorously” and “unreservedly rejects as meritless all allegations on this legacy matter raised towards it”.
2021: Archegos collapse
Credit score Suisse recorded a $5.5bn loss as a result of its dangerous publicity to the US hedge fund Archegos Capital Administration, which collapsed in early 2021.
Credit score Suisse mentioned it took motion towards 23 employees and fired 9, and subsequently promised to place danger administration “on the coronary heart” of its decision-making.
2021: Greensill scandal
Credit score Suisse was pressured to droop $10bn of investor funds after the collapse of the supply-chain lender Greensill Capital, whose loans had been packaged and bought to Credit score Suisse purchasers.
The Greensill scandal, which stemmed from dangerous loans it prolonged to firms owned by the metals magnate Sanjeev Gupta, spiralled after it emerged the previous UK prime minister David Cameron lobbied ministers and authorities officers on its behalf.
The financial institution continues to be attempting to claw again cash for purchasers and mentioned “actions have been taken towards a variety of people” in relation to the case.
2021: Mozambique tuna bonds
Regulators fined Credit score Suisse £350m to settle the financial institution’s position within the long-running Mozambique “tuna bonds” mortgage bribery scandal that pushed the nation into monetary disaster from 2016.
Credit score Suisse was implicated in $50m-worth of kickbacks {that a} authorities contractor handed to its bankers in trade for higher phrases on practically $1.3bn-worth of loans organized for the Folks’s Republic of Mozambique between 2012 and 2016.
The financial institution mentioned it “condemns any unjustified observations and has already taken decisive steps to strengthen its related governance and processes”.
The Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren is urging the US labour division to disclaim Credit score Suisse the power to handle staff’ retirement funds because of the bribery settlement.
2022: Chairman resigns
António Horta-Osório resigned as Credit score Suisse chairman on 17 January after twice breaking Covid quarantine guidelines in Switzerland and the UK, together with to attend soccer and tennis matches in London.
“I remorse that a variety of my private actions have led to difficulties for the financial institution and compromised my potential to symbolize the financial institution internally and externally,” he mentioned.
Credit score Suisse instantly appointed the board member Axel Lehmann as its chairman. Lehmann was on the helm for under 5 weeks earlier than the publication of the Suisse secrets and techniques leak.
Credit score Suisse response to Suisse secrets and techniques disclosures obtainable right here.
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