Credit Suisse faulted over probe of Nazi-linked accounts
GENEVA –
U.S. lawmakers have accused embattled Swiss financial institution Credit Suisse of limiting the scope of an inner investigation into Nazi shoppers and Nazi-linked accounts, together with some open that had been till only a few years in the past.
The Senate Budget Committee says an unbiased ombudsman initially introduced in by the financial institution to supervise the probe was “inexplicably terminated” as he carried out his work, and it faulted “incomplete” stories that had been hindered by restrictions.
Credit Suisse stated it was “fully cooperating” with the committee’s inquiry however rejected some claims from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights group, that dropped at mild in 2020 allegations of attainable Nazi-linked accounts at Switzerland’s second-largest financial institution.
Despite the hurdles, the stories from the ombudsman and forensic analysis crew revealed at the least 99 accounts for senior Nazi officers in Germany or members of a Nazi-affiliated group in Argentina, most of which weren’t beforehand disclosed, the committee stated Tuesday.
The stories “raise new questions about the bank’s potential support for Nazis fleeing justice following World War II via so-called `Ratlines,” the committee stated, referring to a community of escape routes utilized by Nazis after the conflict.
The committee stated Credit Suisse “has pledged to continue its own investigation into remaining unanswered questions.”
“When it comes to investigating Nazi matters, righteous justice demands that we must leave no stone unturned. Credit Suisse has thus far failed to meet that standard,” stated Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the rating Republican member of the finances panel.
“Its removal of an Independent Ombudsperson and insistence on redacting portions of his report as well as its initial refusal to pursue leads on accounts that may be associated with Nazi ratlines is no way to conduct a thorough and complete investigation,” he stated.
Credit Suisse launched the inner investigation after the Simon Wiesenthal Center stated it had info that the financial institution held potential Nazi-linked accounts that had not beforehand been revealed, together with throughout a sequence of Holocaust-related investigations of the Nineteen Nineties.
Late that decade, Swiss banks agreed to pay some $1.25 billion to Nazi victims and their households who accused the banks of stealing, hiding or sending to the Nazis a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} value of Jewish holdings.
The financial institution stated its two-year investigation into the questions raised by the Simon Wiesenthal Center discovered “no evidence” to assist the allegations “that many people on an Argentine list of 12,000 names had accounts at Schweizerische Kreditanstalt” — the predecessor of Credit Suisse — through the Nazi period.
It stated the investigation “fundamentally confirms existing research on Credit Suisse’s history published in the context of the 1999 Global Settlement that provided binding closure for the Swiss banks regarding all issues relating to World War II.”
The newest findings come quickly after Credit Suisse, a pillar of Swiss banking whose origins date to 1856, was rescued in a government-orchestrated takeover by rival lender UBS.
The emergency motion final month got here after years of inventory value declines, a string of scandals and the flight of depositors fearful about Credit Suisse’s future amid world monetary turmoil stirred by the collapse of two U.S. banks.
