Wyden Investigation Leads to $511 Million Settlement Agreement By Credit Suisse For Helping the Ultra-Wealthy Evade Taxes; Wyden Calls for Criminal Prosecution of Bankers And Advisors Who Facilitated Tax-Evasion Schemes
Senate Finance Committee Investigation Uncovered Pattern of Tax Evasion by Credit Suisse Clients in 2023
Washington, D.C. – An investigation that was spurred by a 2023 Senate Finance Committee report culminated in an agreement by Credit Suisse to pay $511 million to settle charges that it helped wealthy clients hide their wealth offshore and dodge U.S. taxes.
Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the settlement is a full vindication of his committee’s investigation and brave whistleblowers who contributed to the report, and called for criminal prosecution of Credit Suisse Bankers and Advisors who facilitated the tax evasion by their wealthy clients.
“This settlement fully vindicates the findings of my investigation, which exposed how Credit Suisse kept hiding more than $700 million offshore for rich Americans in violation of their deal to avoid prosecution. The ultra-wealthy and shady Swiss bankers shouldn’t get a free pass to cook up offshore tax evasion schemes when regular Americans are paying their fair share,” Wyden said. “I’ve been watchdogging this issue for years, because government regulators were asleep on the job. Now it’s on the Trump administration to criminally prosecute any banker or professional advisor involved in perpetrating this sprawling criminal enterprise. If they don’t follow through, it will be yet another handout to the super-rich and another betrayal of working Americans who play by the rules.”
The committee’s investigation uncovered major violations of that plea agreement, including a previously unknown, ongoing and potentially criminal conspiracy involving the failure to disclose nearly $100 million in secret offshore accounts belonging to a single family of American taxpayers. The investigation also shed new light on the extent to which Credit Suisse bankers aided and abetted offshore tax evasion by U.S. businessman Dan Horsky, who pleaded guilty in 2016 to one of the largest criminal tax evasion cases in American history.
The committee also obtained information from Credit Suisse on other large, undeclared accounts belonging to ultra-wealthy U.S. citizens with more than $20 million held at the bank. By the time of the investigation’s conclusion, Credit Suisse disclosed to the committee that it had identified 23 such accounts, with more reviews underway. Based on the committee’s findings, the total amount concealed in violation of Credit Suisse’s 2014 plea agreement is more than $700 million.
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