Credit Suisse has agreed to plead guilty and pay $511 million in fines after admitting it helped wealthy U.S. clients hide more than $4 billion from tax authorities, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday. The Swiss bank’s misconduct violated a 2014 plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors over similar charges.
Under the deal filed in federal court in Virginia, Credit Suisse Services will pay two penalties totaling $511 million. Of that, $372 million addresses the bank’s role in preparing false U.S. tax returns, while nearly $139 million stems from a non-prosecution agreement concerning undeclared U.S. accounts at its legacy Singapore booking centre.
UBS Credit Suisse’s parent since a 2023 rescue merger said it had no involvement in the underlying misconduct and maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward tax evasion. UBS executives signed the plea agreement and entered the guilty plea on Credit Suisse’s behalf.
The DoJ’s investigation found that Credit Suisse aided Americans in hiding assets via at least 475 offshore accounts. Bankers falsified records, created sham donation paperwork, and managed over $1 billion in accounts without verifying clients’ tax compliance, the Justice Department said.
In 2014, Credit Suisse paid $2.6 billion the largest DoJ criminal tax penalty at the time for helping U.S. taxpayers file bogus returns. The new settlement also resolves allegations that from 2014 to 2023 the bank’s Singapore unit held more than $2 billion in secret accounts for U.S. clients. UBS discovered those undeclared accounts post-merger and cooperated with U.S. authorities to disclose them.
Both Credit Suisse Services and UBS have agreed to continue cooperating with ongoing DoJ inquiries. The settlement does not protect any individuals from prosecution. It follows a 2023 U.S. Senate report that found Credit Suisse repeatedly enabled ultra-wealthy Americans to evade taxes and failed to report nearly $100 million in one family’s offshore holdings despite prior whistleblower warnings that the evasion persisted after the 2014 agreement.
