A US Senate panel investigation has found that troubled investment bank Credit Suisse hid information from previous inquiries into Nazi-controlled bank accounts during World War II.
Thousands of documents discovered during an ongoing investigation provide new evidence of the existence of account holders linked to the Nazis, the Senate Budget Committee said in a statement released Saturday.
The committee said the bank had not disclosed the existence of these accounts during previous investigations, particularly in the 1990s.
Credit Suisse, now a subsidiary of the investment bank UBS, agreed in 1998 to participate in a $1.25 billion settlement of lawsuits brought by Holocaust survivors, but at the same time denied full disclosure about its past dealings with the Nazis. It has been accused of not being open properly.
A set of newly discovered files, including 3,600 physical documents and 40,000 microfilms, found a “high relevance rate” of Nazi connections, the Senate committee said Saturday.
It said the revelations come from an interim report by former prosecutor Neil Barofsky, who was fired as the bank’s “independent ombudsman” in 2022 after pressure to limit his investigative work.
Barofsky was reinstated to this role in 2023 “as a result of the Committee’s investigation” and following the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS.
In a letter to the panel released Saturday, Barofsky said “Credit Suisse, under UBS’s leadership, has provided an extraordinary level of support” since rejoining the company.
But he said Credit Suisse has not yet shared all the information it has.
The Barofsky team discovered, among other things, accounts controlled by high-ranking SS officers. wall street journal Informed.
In his letter, Barofsky highlighted “particularly notable” findings from the Credit Suisse research department.
“Many client files in the sample are marked with a stamp stating ‘Amerikanische Schwarze Liste’ – meaning ‘American Black List’ – a list maintained by the affiliates of individuals and companies who directly funded had, or was known to trade regularly with, the Axis powers,” he wrote.
“A file with this stamp belongs to an organization that was involved in selling looted Jewish properties,” he said.
Contacted by AFP, UBS said it was committed to providing full records of former Nazi-linked accounts at Credit Suisse’s predecessor banks.
It said it would provide all necessary support to Barofsky in his work to shed light “on this tragic period”.
The Senate panel’s investigation continues.