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Credit Suisse has come under fire for neglecting to fully investigate allegations that the bank served Nazi clients and Nazi-linked accounts as recently as 2020, according to a new US Senate committee investigation.
According to the press release issued from Senate Budget Committee On Tuesday, that was Holocaust Remembrance Day In the United States, Credit Suisse fired an independent ombudsperson who oversaw a sweeping internal review and narrowed the scope of its internal investigations. The Senate committee said this left significant gaps in the forensic search of Nazi-linked records.
The bipartisan Senate investigation follows a March 2020 report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) that Linked Credit Suisse Listed with 12,000 Nazis in Argentina. Credit Suisse Said at that time An independent commission of experts had already thoroughly investigated the bank, but said it would re-examine the matter.
In a statement on Tuesday, however, Credit Suisse said they had Organized two years The Simon Wiesenthal Center investigated the claims and found that “investigators found no evidence to support SWC’s allegations” about Nazi-linked bank accounts.
A team of 50 professionals from independent consulting firm AlixPartners spent more than 50,000 hours investigating the case using the bank’s archives and databases, the bank said.
The new Senate investigation centers around allegations made by Neil Barofsky, who in June 2021 hired a lawyer from Jenner & Block to serve as an ombudsman and oversee a review of the bank’s potential links to Nazi accounts. was gone
Barofsky claims that the bank did not fully investigate links to Nazi sympathizers or the possibility that the bank used escape routes, known as ratlines, used by the Nazis in other countries after the war. Financial assistance may be provided to evacuate.
Brofsky Drafted a report But said the bank reneged on its commitments to publish it last June and terminated its contract in November. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Sheldon White House and Sen. Chuck Grassley issued a subpoena For Barofsky’s report in March.
“When it comes to investigating Nazi cases, righteous justice demands that we leave no stone unturned. Credit Suisse has so far failed to meet that standard,” Sen. Grassley said in a statement.
“While Credit Suisse initially agreed to investigate evidence of previously undetected Nazi-linked accounts as a result of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s continued pursuit of justice, the information we have obtained indicates that the bank has made an unduly strict and established a narrow circle, and refused to follow it. New leads emerged during the review, Grassley said.
Credit Suisse said in his statement On Tuesday, “the bank is aware of the former ombudsperson’s account of limited engagement which contains numerous factual errors, misleading and unsubstantiated statements and unsupported allegations based on an incomplete understanding of the facts.” The bank said it “strongly rejects these misrepresentations.”
Representatives for Neal Brofsky and Alix Partners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Alix Partners, according to the Senate committee, has indicated it will conduct a “supplemental review” of Ratlines’ connections, among other allegations of Credit Suisse.
Credit Suisse is Switzerland’s second-largest bank by assets and has been plagued by scandals and heavy losses over the past few years. Last month, it was forced to sell to rival Swiss bank UBS to avert a banking crisis.
Credit Suisse and UBS paid $1.25 billion in 1998 to settle lawsuits filed by Holocaust survivors and their heirs that claimed the banks illegally misappropriated funds from their relatives before and during World War II. had deposited millions of dollars.
