Credit Suisse Accused of Covering Up Inquiry Into Nazi-Linked Accounts

The Senate Budget Committee says the bank fired an independent ombudsperson investigating Nazi ties without explanation.

It has been a particularly rough few months for Credit Suisse  (CSGKF) . Once considered the paragon of stability, the 167-year-old investment bank was acquired by UBS  (UBS) - Get Free Report back in March after clients rushed to withdraw their money amid the fall of smaller banks such as Silicon Valley Bank and Signature.

The $3 billion rescue by once-rival UBS Group was the largest acquisition the banking world had seen in years.

DON'T MISS: Panic Around Deutsche Bank Being The 'Next Credit Suisse' Spreads

While the deal allows Credit Suisse to carry on, the bank is not out of hot water as it faces both an acquisition-related overhaul and now the resurfacing of past problems.

Credit Suisse Fired Ombudsperson, Released 'Incomplete' Reports

The Senate Budget Committee on April 18 accused the bank of covering up an investigation into accounts that are linked to Nazi officers during World War II.

The bank had been conducting a multiyear probe into its potential role in helping Nazis fleeing Germany in the 1930s and 1940s protect their money, but according to the committee, "inexplicably" fired the ombudsperson conducting the work and released reports that were incomplete and "hampered by scoping restrictions."

Even so, 99 accounts with Nazi links have emerged in the findings.

"They nonetheless reveal nearly 100 previously undisclosed Nazi-linked accounts and related information, and they raise new questions about the bank's potential support for Nazis fleeing justice following World War II via so-called 'Ratlines,'" the budget committee says in a press release in reference to the escape routes that took fleeing Nazis to Argentina and many parts of Latin America.

The Senate Budget Committee released its findings on Holocaust Remembrance Day in the U.S. and aimed to draw attention to past injustices and what it claims are ongoing efforts to cover them up.

"When it comes to investigating Nazi matters, righteous justice demands that we must leave no stone unturned," Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. "Credit Suisse has thus far failed to meet that standard."

Investigating Nazi Links Requires Leaving 'No Stone Unturned' 

The Senate committee had started looking into the matter when, in 2020, Jewish human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center had named 12,000 Nazis who might have had their bank accounts transferred to Credit Suisse.

Credit Suisse had launched its own investigation in response to the accusations, but, according to the budget committee, started to cover up findings and "refused to follow new leads uncovered during the course of the review."

"When presented with credible, new evidence of Credit Suisse's historical servicing of Nazi clients and their enablers, along with continued efforts to downplay its significance, the Committee had an obligation to act,” Committee Chair Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in a statement.

The bank responded by saying that while it was "fully cooperating" with the senate committee's inquiry, it "strongly rejects these misrepresentations." They said the former ombudsperson's work had "numerous factual errors, misleading and gratuitous statements and unsupported allegations" but did not name what they were.

It further said that 50 professionals from independent consulting firm AlixPartners had spent more than a collective 50,000 hours going through the bank's records and archives to look into the matter.