Credit Suisse AG’s $2.6 billion plea bargain resolving allegations it helped wealthy Americans avoid paying taxes was accepted by a federal judge, ending a three- year probe that helped upend Swiss bank secrecy.
The first global banking unit in more than a decade to plead guilty to a crime in a U.S. court, Zurich-based Credit Suisse was sentenced to pay the penalty today by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith in Norfolk, Virginia.
“To afford deterrence is a very important factor here,” the judge said at a hearing that lasted less than an hour. “I adjudge Credit Suisse guilty.”
Credit Suisse pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to aid and assist Americans in filing false tax information to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The judge was bound to either impose terms of the agreement as a sentence or throw out the entire deal, according to the government.
While prosecutors have extracted guilty pleas from some regional subsidiaries of large banks in recent years, such as RBS Securities Japan Ltd. and UBS Securities Japan Co., they have spared global parents. Credit Suisse AG is the banking subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group AG.
The case is U.S. v. Credit Suisse AG, 14-cr-188, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, (Alexandria).
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