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Ex-Credit Suisse workers indicted in US

The US Justice Department on Thursday charged three former Credit Suisse bankers and a Swiss trust company founder with helping wealthy Americans evade US taxes by keeping money in secret Swiss bank accounts.  

The indictment did not mention Credit Suisse by name, since it was the individual bankers, not the bank itself, who were indicted.  

But Credit Suisse announced last week that it was the target of a US Justice Department investigation, which is typically a prelude to an indictment, and media reports indicate that Credit Suisse is the bank in question.  

Those charged are Markus Walder, the former head of Credit Suisse’s North America Offshore Banking, Susanne D. Ruegg Meier, a former manager at the bank, Andreas Bachmann, a former banker at a Credit Suisse subsidiary, and Josef Dorig, the founder of a Swiss trust company. 

According to the indictment, the four bankers “engaged in illegal cross-border banking that was designed to assist US customers evade their income taxes by opening and maintaining secret bank accounts at the bank and other Swiss banks.”  

The US Justice Department, which announced the charges, said that as of late 2008, the bank maintained thousands of secret accounts for US customers with as much as $3 billion in total assets under management.  

In its statement last week, Credit Suisse said the probe “concerns historical private banking services provided on a cross-border basis to US persons.”  

Thursday’s Justice Department statement noted that the conspiracy to help US citizens evade taxes dated back to 1953, and involved “two generations of US tax evaders including US customers who inherited secret accounts at the international bank.”  

Four other Credit Suisse bankers — Marco Parenti Adami, Emanuel Agustino, Michele Bergantino and Roger Schaerer — were charged in a similar indictment in February.  

The indictments against the former Credit Suisse bankers come after another damaging case against rival Swiss bank UBS.  

Not only was UBS made to pay a $780 million fine, but the Swiss government was also forced to ease the country’s banking secrecy rules to allow the bank to hand over 4,000 case files on US clients suspected of tax evasion.  

According to the indictment against the former Credit Suisse bankers, the bank’s employees destroyed statements and other account records sent by email or fax to its office in New York “so that records regarding the undeclared accounts would not be maintained in the United States.”  

They also advised their US customers to make their withdrawals in amounts less than $10,000 in order to try to hide the secret bank accounts and transactions from US authorities.  

If convicted, each defendant could face up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

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BANK

Deutsche Bank to pay $130m to settle US bribery probes

Deutsche Bank will pay $130 million to settle a foreign bribery probe and fraud charges in precious metals trading, US officials announced on Friday.

Deutsche Bank to pay $130m to settle US bribery probes
A woman walks past the offices of Deutsche Bank in London. Photo: Tolga Akmen / AFP
The bribery case relates to illegal payments and to false reporting of those sums on the bank's books and records between 2009 and 2016, the Department of Justice said in a press release.
   
The bank “knowingly and wilfully” kept false records after employees conspired with a Saudi consultant to facilitate bribe payments of over $1 million to a decision maker, the DOJ said.
   
In another case, the bank paid more than $3 million “without invoices” to an Abu Dhabi consultant “who lacked qualifications… other than his family relationship with the client decision maker,” the DOJ said.
   
In addition to criminal fines and payments of ill-gotten gains, Deutsche Bank agreed to cooperate with government investigators under a three-year deferred prosecution agreement.
 
   
In the commodities fraud case, Deutsche Bank metals traders in New York, Singapore and London between 2008 and 2013 placed fake trade orders to profit by deceiving other market participants, the DOJ said.
   
The agreement took into account Deutsche Bank's cooperation with the probes, DOJ said.
   
“Deutsche Bank engaged in a criminal scheme to conceal payments to so-called consultants worldwide who served as conduits for bribes to foreign officials and others so that they could unfairly obtain and retain lucrative business projects,” said Acting US Attorney Seth D. DuCharme of the Eastern District of New York.
   
“This office will continue to hold responsible financial institutions that operate in the United States and engage in practices to facilitate criminal activity in order to increase their bottom line.”
   
“We take responsibility for these past actions, which took place between 2008 and 2017,” said Deutsche Bank spokesperson Dan Hunter, adding that the company has taken “significant remedial actions” including hiring staff and upgrading technology to address the shortcomings.
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