US hauls four Credit Suisse bankers to court for aiding US citizens evade taxes

Four bankers at Credit Suisse were yesterday indicted by the US government on charges of aiding wealthy US taxpayers hide as much as $3 billion in secret Swiss and other offshore accounts to avoid US taxes.

According to the indictment filed yesterday by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in federal court in Virginia, four bankers at Zurich-based Credit Suisse, Marco Parenti Adami, Emanuel Agustoni, Michele Bergantino and Roger Schaerer aided and abetted wealthy US citizens in avoiding paying taxes in the US by operating and maintaining secret bank accounts at the bank and other Swiss banks.

The DoJ allege that Credit Suisse, one of the biggest banks in Switzerland, maintained thousands of secret accounts of US citizens holding up to $3 billion in assets.
"The conspiracy dates back to 1953 and involved two generations of US tax evaders, including US customers who inherited secret accounts at the international bank," the DoJ said in a statement.

Bank officials "knew and should have known that they were aiding and abetting US customers in evading their US income taxes," according to the indictment.

The indictment further alleges that the four bankers at Credit Suisse made US customers travel to Switzerland and the Bahamas to conduct banking related to their secret accounts, opened secret accounts in the names of nominee in tax haven entities for US customers, accepted IRS forms that falsely stated under penalties of perjury that the owners of the secret accounts were not subject to US taxation.

They also advised US customers to structure withdrawals from their secret accounts in amounts less than $10,000 in an attempt to conceal the secret account and the transactions from the US authorities, and advised them to utilise offshore credit, and debit cards linked to their secret accounts and provided the customers with American Express, Visa and Maestro cards.