Credit Suisse Admits Guilt In Aiding US Citizens Evade Taxes - Live Eric Holder Press Conference

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/19/2014 17:58 -0400

• Credit Suisse
 
• Department of Justice
 
• Federal Reserve
 
• New York State
 
• Reuters
 
• Switzerland
 
• Wall Street Journal

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As expected and discussed earlier in the day, Credit Suisse has become the first major bank to admit to doing anything wrong (though obviously unrelated directly to the financial crisis):

• U.S. FILES CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST CREDIT SUISSE IN FEDERAL COURT
• CREDIT SUISSE AGREES TO PLEAD GUILTY IN TAX CASE SAYS U.S
• CREDIT SUISSE PLEA WOULD END THREE YEAR U.S. INVESTIGATION
• U.S. ALLEGES CREDIT SUISSE AIDED U.S. CITIZENS IN TAX EVASION

Expectations are for a $2.6 billion settlement ($1.9bn to DoJ & $0.7bn to NY) - notably more than the ~$475 million CS has reserved for the settlement - but Eric Holder's due to speak at a press conference at 6pmET to cover the details (but will anyone go to jail?)

Some details:

• *CREDIT SUISSE SAID TO PAY $715 MILLION TO NEW YORK IN TAX CASE
• *CREDIT SUISSE PAYMENT TO NEW YORK REGULATOR PART OF U.S. ACCORD
• *CREDIT SUISSE NEW YORK AGREEMENT INCLUDES MONITOR, TERMINATIONS

Remember - Holder told us there was no such thing as too big to jail...

Live Press Conference (click image for live feed via Bloomberg - no embed available)

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As Reuters reported earlier,

Credit Suisse's guilty plea to U.S. criminal charges is likely to be announced after the market closes on Monday, three sources said.

Under a settlement, Credit Suisse is expected to pay over $2 billion to U.S. authorities to resolve charges it helped Americans evade taxes. The Swiss bank has been in negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Spokesmen for Credit Suisse and the New York State Department of Finance as well as a spokeswoman for the U.S. Federal Reserve all declined to comment. A representative from the Department of Justice was not immediately available for comment.

A criminal guilty plea would be unusual for a financial institution. Authorities have not often sought criminal convictions against a company, fearing the action would put the firm out of business and result in lost jobs for employees that had nothing to do with any crime.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan and Chairman Urs Rohner will retain their jobs under the settlement, citing a source.

Last week, sources told Reuters the settlement was expected to be about $2.5 billion, with about $2 billion going to the U.S. government, while the New York's Department of Financial Services potentially would get another $500 million or more. The bank feared that a bigger settlement would threaten its credit rating, a source said.

Wondering how they did it? - We laid it all out here

The criminal case follows a Senate subcommittee investigation that found the bank provided accounts in Switzerland for more than 22,000 US clients totalling up to $12bn.

The report said Credit Suisse sent Swiss bankers to recruit American clients at golf tournaments and other events, encouraged US customers to travel to Switzerland and actively helped them hide their assets.

In one instance, a Credit Suisse banker handed a customer bank statements hidden in a Sports Illustrated magazine during a breakfast meeting in the United States.

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