Credit Suisse Probe Uncovers 890 Suspected Nazi-Linked Accounts, U.S. Senator Says
Accounts were reportedly tied to the German Foreign Ministry and SS officers, according to findings presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
An investigation has identified 890 accounts at Credit Suisse with potential links to Nazis, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley said ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday regarding the historical ties of banks to the Holocaust.
“Among the bank accounts found are previously undisclosed WWII-era accounts belonging to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a German arms manufacturer, and the German Red Cross,” said Grassley, the ranking member of the committee who has been monitoring the Credit Suisse inquiries for years.
UBS Group AG, which acquired its former rival in 2023, has been cooperating with former U.S. prosecutor Neil Barofsky to investigate Nazi-linked accounts held at Credit Suisse, Reuters reported.
In a statement provided to the committee, Barofsky said his team also discovered previously undisclosed forced transfers of Jewish assets into Nazi-controlled accounts.
The investigation revealed that Credit Suisse or its predecessor banks held accounts for the German Foreign Ministry, which assisted in the deportation of Jews to concentration camps. An account was also held by an SS officer who managed funds for the Nazi party’s economic arm, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
The probe further found that Credit Suisse rented office space to and provided banking services for an Argentine government agency that helped Nazis escape to Argentina after the war.
Credit Suisse was formed from an amalgamation of smaller Swiss banks, some of which provided services to Germans as the Nazis plundered the assets of Jewish victims. Nearly three decades ago, the bank was part of a $1.25 billion settlement with Holocaust survivors.
However, in 2021, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights organization named for the famed Nazi hunter, accused the bank of not fully disclosing its historical role, including its banking relationships with German Nazis who fled to South America.
Barofsky, who served as the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program after the 2008 financial crisis, has been an independent monitor for Credit Suisse since 2014, following the bank’s guilty plea for helping U.S. clients evade taxes.
Last year, UBS designated the investigation a priority, granting Barofsky and his team access to Credit Suisse’s private archives. The bank assigned more than 50 people to support the probe, including forensic accountants and historians. The team uncovered approximately 3,600 boxes of documents containing client information, including individuals on a U.S. blacklist during the war for supporting the Nazis.
“Shedding light on Credit Suisse’s past is part of closing a very dark chapter in history,” Grassley told reporters on Monday while outlining some of Barofsky’s findings.
