An investigation by a US Senate committee has found that troubled investment bank Credit Suisse withheld information in previous investigations into bank accounts controlled by Nazis during World War II.
Tens of thousands of documents uncovered during an ongoing investigation have provided new evidence of the existence of Nazi-linked account holders, the Senate Budget Committee said in a statement released Saturday.
The bank did not disclose the existence of these accounts in previous investigations, including in the 1990s, the commission said.
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 it was accused of not not be completely open about his past dealings with the Nazis.
The Senate committee said Saturday that a newly discovered set of files, including 3,600 physical documents and 40,000 microfilms, had a “high relevance rate” in terms of links to the Nazis.
The revelations come from an interim report by former prosecutor Neil Barofsky, who was fired as an “independent mediator” by the bank in 2022 after being pressured to limit his investigative work.
Barofsky was reinstated in his role in 2023 “following the committee’s investigation” and after the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS.
In a letter to the panel released Saturday, Barofsky highlighted the “extraordinary level of cooperation that Credit Suisse, under the leadership of UBS, has provided” since he joined the firm.
But he added that Credit Suisse had not yet shared all the information it had.
The Barofsky team discovered, among other things, accounts controlled by high-ranking SS officers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
In his letter, Barofsky highlights “particularly remarkable” findings from a Credit Suisse research department.
“Many client files in the sample are stamped reading ‘Amerikanische schwarze Liste’ – meaning ‘American Blacklist’ – an Allied-maintained list of individuals and companies that have been directly funded by, or were known to trade regularly with, the Axis Powers,” he wrote.
“A file with this stamp concerns an entity involved in the sale of looted Jewish property,” he added.
Contacted by AFP, UBS undertook to provide a complete register of former accounts linked to the Nazis in previous Credit Suisse banks.
He said he would provide Barofsky with all necessary assistance in his work to shed light “on this tragic period.”
The Senate committee’s investigation continues.
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