Credit Suisse 'deeply' regrets misconduct, blames employees

Credit Suisse Group moved to blame a small number of employees after a US Senate report said the Swiss lender helped clients hide as much as $10 billion of assets from tax authorities. “Some Swiss-based private bankers went to great lengths to disguise their bad conduct from Credit Suisse executive management,”

CEO Brady Dougan said in written testimony before a US Senate committee hearing. “While that employee misconduct violated our policies, and was unknown to our executive management, we accept responsibility for and deeply regret these employees’ actions.” Credit Suisse helped American clients hide as much as $10 billion in assets from the Internal Revenue Service, more than twice the amount previously known, according to the report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Switzerland’s second-biggest bank helped clients cheat the IRS by opening accounts under false names, according to the report. It also says Credit Suisse bankers referred clients to intermediaries who set up offshore shell entities that masked the ownership of accounts.

Senator John McCain, who is on the committee, said it’s not plausible that senior management wasn’t involved, considering the “systemic” misconduct. “If you believe that, I have some beachfront property in Arizona,” McCain said.

The committee concluded that “the vast majority” of 22,000 accounts opened for US customers — 85-95 per cent — may have been hidden from the IRS. At its peak from 2001 to 2008, the bank held as much as $12 billion in assets for US customers, the report found, meaning that about $10 billion was undeclared.