Credit Suisse 'aided' US tax evaders

 

Credit Suisse "helped its US customers conceal their Swiss accounts" and avoid billions of dollars in American taxes, a report has alleged.

It claims the bank opened Swiss accounts for more than 22,000 US customers, with assets totalling $12bn (£7.2bn) at their peak.

The report alleges bankers helped clients create offshore shell entities and design transactions to avoid arousing suspicion.

Credit Suisse declined to comment.

"From at least 2001 to 2008, Credit Suisse employed banking practices that facilitated tax evasion by US customers," the report by a US congressional committee said.

It said the practices included "opening undeclared Swiss accounts" or accounts to "mask their US ownership", as well as sending Swiss bankers to the US to recruit new customers and "service existing Swiss accounts without creating paper trails".

US prosecutors are chasing 14 Swiss banks for allegedly helping wealthy Americans dodge US taxes.

 Credit Suisse's private banking and wealth management division has already put aside 175m Swiss francs (£118m) to fight a US investigation into hidden offshore accounts in Switzerland.