Swiss bank Credit Suisse withheld information about support for the Nazis during World War II during an earlier investigation, a US Senate committee revealed this weekend.
A new study has uncovered tens of thousands of documents that provide new evidence of account holders with ties to Adolf Hitler’s party. They include alleged middlemen who helped the Nazis hide gold and conceal illegal transactions to purchase war materials and plunder Jewish assets.
Credit Suisse, which was to be rescued by Swiss rival UBS in 2023, agreed to a $1.3 billion settlement in 1998 in lawsuits brought by Holocaust survivors. But it now appears the bank was not fully transparent about its past involvement with the Nazi regime.
Credit Suisse agreed to a new investigation into the matter in 2020. But according to the US Senate committee, the investigation was “unnecessarily rigid and limited in scope”. The bank also refused to follow new instructions. In 2022, Credit Suisse also ended its cooperation with Neil Barofsky, an independent ombudsman who was supposed to oversee the investigation.
In 2023, Barofsky was rehired when Credit Suisse was acquired by UBS. UBS said it was committed to counting all former Nazi-related accounts. The bank also said the organization would provide Barofsky with “all necessary assistance” so that “through this investigation he can continue to shed light on this tragic period in history.”
