Swiss banking group UBS has agreed with Dutch prosecutors to pay a €5m fine in an investigation into Credit Suisse for helping clients hide funds from tax authorities. UBS acquired Credit Suisse in 2023.
The case concerns Credit Suisse's actions between 2005 and 2015. According to Dutch prosecutors, the bank was complicit in the filing of 80 false tax returns by 12 clients who held funds in Swiss bank accounts without declaring them to tax authorities in the Netherlands.
The investigation found that Credit Suisse provided its clients with various options to keep their funds confidential. These included withholding bank correspondence, opening anonymous accounts and using code names when contacting bank employees.
The bank also assisted in the creation of companies in countries that did not exchange tax information with the Netherlands at the time. In this way, clients were able to conceal the ownership and origin of some of their funds from the Dutch authorities.
The criminal investigation began in 2016. The prosecutor's office focused its actions primarily on the bank, since, according to the indictment, the Dutch clients were mainly executors, while the financial institution provided the mechanisms through which the funds were hidden.
The authorities note that the risk of similar practices being repeated is now significantly limited. Since the summer of 2014, Credit Suisse has stopped serving clients with undeclared savings and has subsequently introduced stricter tax compliance rules.
UBS acquired Credit Suisse in 2023 after the crisis, which led to an emergency takeover of the bank. This agreement is therefore the latest case in which UBS has had to settle the legal and financial consequences related to Credit Suisse's activities prior to its acquisition.