Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan dismissed claims on February 26 that managers at the bank were responsible for helping US nationals hide billions of dollars from the tax man. The scandal, Dougan said, was “centred on a small group of Swiss-based private bankers” who “went to great lengths to disguise their bad conduct.”
The banking boss was speaking before a US Senate panel as part of an extensive investigation that uncovered illegal banking practices on American soil between 2001 and 2008. Over this period, the Swiss bank managed around 12 billion Swiss francs, or around 9.8 billion euros, on behalf of around 22,000 US citizens. According to a Senate report released February 25, almost 90% of this money was not declared to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The scathing report shed light on how Swiss bankers flaunted regulations to persuade wealthy US nationals to open secret accounts. FRANCE 24 presents concrete examples from the report to illustrate “The American Connection” that has rocked Credit Suisse.