A US Senate committee has found that the troubled Swiss bank Credit Suisse concealed information during previous investigations into accounts linked to Nazis during World War II.
The Senate Budget Committee said in a statement on Saturday that tens of thousands of documents discovered during an ongoing audit provided new evidence of the existence of accounts linked to the Nazis.
The committee added that the bank did not disclose these accounts during previous investigations, especially in the 1990s.
Credit Suisse had agreed to a $1.25 billion settlement of lawsuits filed against it by survivors of the “Jewish Holocaust,” but it was accused of not being fully open about its past dealings with the Nazis.
The Senate committee said Saturday that a newly discovered package of files, including 3,600 physical documents and 40,000 microfilms, was found to contain a “high level of connection” to the Nazis.
She explained that these discoveries resulted from an interim report by Neil Barofsky, who was dismissed by the bank from his position as an “independent investigator” in 2022 after pressuring him to limit his investigations.
Barofsky was reappointed as a private investigator in 2023, after UBS acquired Credit Suisse in the wake of a major financial crisis that the latter faced.
UBS had bought Credit Suisse in 2023.
In a letter to the committee on Saturday, Barofsky noted “the exceptional level of cooperation provided by Credit Suisse, under the leadership of UBS,” since his return to work, but added that Credit Suisse had not yet shared all the information in its possession.
For its part, the Wall Street Journal reported that Barofsky’s team discovered accounts controlled by high-ranking officers in the Nazi SS, or special protection squads.
In his letter, Barofsky highlighted discoveries described as “noteworthy” in Credit Suisse’s research department.
For its part, UBS confirmed that it would provide Barofsky with all necessary assistance in his work.
UBS said in a statement that it is “committed to contributing to the full accounting of accounts linked to the Nazis… Since the acquisition of Credit Suisse, we have made it a priority to ensure that the review is comprehensive and accurate.”
