Massive Credit Suisse leak reveals possible criminal ties from 18,000 accounts

February 22, 2022: -On Sunday, Credit Suisse was scrambling to contain the fallout from its latest scandal after several newspapers reported that over 18,000 leaked accounts showed that criminals, alleging human rights abuses, and sanctioned individuals, which include dictators, had been clients of the Swiss bank.

According to a press release, the leaked information, covering accounts holding over $100 billion, came from a whistle-blower who shared his findings with the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper then involved an anti-corruption group and 46 different media outlets worldwide, including The New York Times, Guardian, Le Monde, etc.

According to the media reports, clients of the second-biggest Swiss bank included an international cast of unsavory characters. Account-holders included a Yemeni spy chief implicated in torture, Venezuelan officials involved in a corruption scandal, and the sons of former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

The accounts had been opened from the 1940s into the 2010s, according to the release on Sunday from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

“I’ve too often seen criminals and corrupt politicians who afford to keep on doing business as usual, no matter what the circumstances, as they have the certainty that their ill-gotten gains will be kept safe,” Paul Radu, co-founder of the OCCRP, said in the statement. “Our investigation exposes the way these people can bypass regulation despite their crimes, to the detriment of democracies and people all around the world.”

While Swiss banks, world-renowned for the strict secrecy laws protecting clients of the country, are not supposed to accept money linked to criminal activity, the law is unenforced mainly, according to The New York Times, citing a former head of Switzerland’s anti-money laundering agency.

In a nearly 400-word statement on Sunday, Credit Suisse said that it “strongly rejects” the accusations made about its business practices.

“The matters presented are historical, in few cases dating back as far as the 1940s, and the accounts of these matters are based on partial, inaccurate, or selective information taken out of context, which results in tendentious interpretations of the bank’s business conduct,” the bank said.

Almost 90% of the accounts in the leak had been closed or were in the process of being completed before media inquiries began, the bank said. It is “comfortable” that the remaining accounts were appropriately vetted. Credit Suisse further said that it couldn’t comment on individual clients and that it’s already taken action “at the relevant times” to address improper clients.

For much of the previous decade, the Zurich-based financial giant has moved from one crisis to one more came to terms with its role in helping clients launder ill-gotten funds, shelter assets from taxation, and aid in corruption.