Credit Suisse handled billions of dollars in dirty money for decades, an international media investigation based on a massive data leak claimed on Sunday, in the latest setback for Switzerland’s second-largest bank.
The bank held more than US$8 billion in accounts of criminals, dictators and human rights abusers, among others, according to the investigation by a group comprising dozens of media organizations.
Credit Suisse rejected the “allegations and insinuations,” saying in a statement that many of the issues raised were historical, some dating back more than 70 years.
Photo: Reuters
According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a nonprofit journalism group, the “Suisse Secrets” investigation began when an anonymous source shared bank data with German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung more than a year ago.
That information, covering accounts collectively worth US$100 billion at their highest point, was trawled through by 48 media outlets worldwide, including the New York Times, Le Monde and The Guardian.
Accounts identified as problematic held more than US$8 billion in assets, the investigation found.
The accounts included those held by a Yemeni spy chief implicated in torture, the sons of an Azerbaijani official, a Serbian drug lord and bureaucrats accused of looting Venezuela’s oil wealth.
It was the largest leak ever from a major Swiss bank, OCCRP said.
The leak included information on more than 18,000 bank accounts, many of which “remained open well into the 2010s,” the OCCRP said.
On Sunday, the bank said: “Credit Suisse strongly rejects the allegations and insinuations about the bank’s purported business practices.”
“The matters presented are predominantly historical, in some cases dating back as far as the 1940s, and the accounts of these matters based on partial, inaccurate or selective information taken out of context, resulting in tendentious interpretations of the bank’s business conduct,” the bank said.
In a statement on its Web site, the OCCRP said: “We believe the dozens of examples we have cited raise serious questions about Credit Suisse’s effectiveness and commitment to meeting its responsibilities.”
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
RSS