Data Leak Shows Credit Suisse’s Criminal Clientele, Bank Denies Wrongdoings

Credit Suisse, which is trying to clean its image from various scandals, has found itself in the middle of another controversy. A massive data leak exposed that the Swiss private bank had taken deposits from several unsavoury clients pointing to a failure in its due diligence process.

German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung received the leaked information of the bank accounts which it later shared with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and 46 other news organizations. They studied the details of the accounts linked to 30,000 Credit Suisse clients that were held over decades, from the 1940s to 2010s.

These accounts collectively held $100 billion in deposits. But, some of it took deposits from clients involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes. Moreover, the bank received deposits from autocrats and suspected war criminals.

No Wrongdoings

However, the Swiss lender denied all of the claims made by the news organizations based on the leaked data.

“Credit Suisse strongly rejects the allegations and insinuations about the bank's purported business practices,” the bank said in a statement released on Sunday.

“The matters presented are predominantly historical... and the accounts of these matters are based on partial, inaccurate or selective information taken out of context, resulting in tendentious interpretations of the bank's business conduct.”

In addition, it said that 90 percent of the reviewed accounts in question were closed or in the process of closing when the private lender received inquiries from the consortium of news outlets. Further, it added that 60 percent of the accounts were closed before 2015.

“Of the remaining active accounts, we are comfortable that appropriate due diligence, reviews and other control-related steps were taken in line with our current framework. We will continue to analyze the matters and take additional steps if necessary,” Credit Suisse added.

The reports from the data leak came when the lender is fighting a legal battle with the Swiss prosecutors in the court over allegations of serious lapses in following anti-money laundering rules and allowing laundering of proceeds of a drug trafficker. Furthermore, the bank posted a $2.17 billion loss for Q4 of 2021, mostly due to its litigation provisions.