Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Billions of dollars in U.S. taxes are going unpaid because Americans are exploiting Swiss bank accounts, and the U.S. government has failed to aggressively pursue Switzerland’s second-largest bank, a Senate investigation has found.
The bank, Credit Suisse, has provided accounts in Switzerland for more than 22,000 U.S. clients totaling $10 billion to $12 billion, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The U.S. government has received only 238 names of U.S. citizens with secret accounts at Credit Suisse, or just 1 percent of the estimated total, the investigation concluded.
Credit Suisse recruited U.S. clients to open Swiss accounts from 2001 through 2008, helped them conceal the accounts from the Internal Revenue Service and enabled misconduct by bank employees, the subcommittee asserted.
For five years, the Senate panel has been examining Swiss banks’ use of secrecy laws to enable tax evasion by Americans. The main focus of its latest report was Credit Suisse.
Credit Suisse had no immediate comment on the Senate report.
Responding to the report in a statement, the Justice Department said it is investigating up to 14 Swiss financial institutions, “and we won’t hesitate to indict if and when circumstances merit.” It did not name the banks.
The Senate subcommittee asserted that the Swiss government, with its famous banking secrecy, has continued to obstruct U.S. authorities’ ability to learn the names of U.S. bank customers and former customers.