Credit Suisse, the Swiss deuxième bank, accepted a payer of 238 million euros in France to avoid criminal suits for illegal demarchage of clients and blanchiment aggravated by tax fraud between 2005 and 2012, according to an agreement valid Monday by the president of the court from Paris.
By agreeing to sign this public interest legal agreement (Cjip) with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), Credit Suisse AG avoids a lawsuit in France and settles its dispute with both the tax authorities, to whom it will pay €115 million in damages and damages, than with the Public Ministry, paying a fine of 123 million euros.
“systemic character”
The investigation of the financial prosecutor’s office began in 2016 after receiving complaints in the framework of mutual financial assistance for money laundering, tax fraud and illegal direct banking. Investigations revealed that 5,000 French clients had had a Credit Suisse account for many years, which had not been declared to the French tax authorities. The hidden assets amounted to 2,000 million euros, recalled the president of the court Stéphane Noël.
“Credit Suisse did not send any statement of account. The prospecting did not comply with French legislation, the sales representatives traveled to France, with total discretion. They identified prospects” with “visits to hotels, restaurants, never to the official facilities of the French “. establishment,” he added.
The PNF calculated the fine taking into account “increasing factors”, namely “the systemic nature, a prolonged period, the creation of tools to hide”, detailed the prosecutor François-Xavier Dulin. “The bank has created offshore structures to help its clients in their desire not to declare certain assets to the French administration,” he stressed. The PNF also took into account the “minor” factors that are the “corrective measures taken by the bank, the cooperation of the bank, the compensation of 115,000 million” to the tax authorities.
Twelve months to pay
The bank has twelve months to pay these sums, in three installments. “It is a historical page, the vestige of an ancient era that the bank has just established,” the bank’s lawyer, Charles-Henri Boeringer, insisted during the hearing. In a statement, Credit Suisse recalled that this public interest court settlement did not include an admission of guilt and marked “an important step in the proactive resolution” of disputes.
Before Credit Suisse, HSBC Private Bank, a Swiss subsidiary of British banking giant HSBC, had already agreed to pay €300 million to escape trial in France for money laundering tax fraud on November 14, 2017. This was the first deal of public interest signed. in France.
Source: BFM TV
