During a Senate hearing, Credit Suisse bank laid out a detailed defense, saying that the perpetrators were a small group of Swiss-based bankers, and that while it wanted to hand over more client names, it was caught between U.S. and Swiss law.<\/p>\n
“Credit Suisse is ready to provide the additional information requested by the U.S. authorities on U.S. account holders, but we have been unable to do so,” the bank said in a statement provided at the hearing.<\/p>\n
Credit Suisse had provided as much information as allowed under Swiss law, it said, and while it wanted to provide more client names, the U.S. Senate had not ratified a bilateral treaty with Switzerland that would allow it to do so.<\/p>\n
Subcommittee Chair Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, poured cold water on that argument, saying the treaty will only expose U.S. accounts at Swiss banks after 2009, when it was signed.<\/p>\n
If U.S. customers closed their accounts before 2009, they could evade detection and years of U.S. tax bills, Levin said, which Credit Suisse bankers acknowledged.<\/p>\n
“We can’t collect taxes owed by those folks, which is what the heart of the problem is. … Don’t tell us the treaty is going to get us what we want,” he said. “It won’t.”<\/p>\n
Levin also scolded the Justice Department for only having retrieved 238 client names from Credit Suisse – and none from the other banks under investigation. But the Justice Department officials said their work did show good progress.<\/p>\n
Credit Suisse said it was a “demonstrably inappropriate assumption” that all 20,000 U.S. clients were tax cheats, saying many U.S. clients, such as expatriates living in Switzerland, had a valid reason to hold a Swiss bank account. \u00a0 Senators accused the Department of Justice of dragging its feet. \u00a0Department of Justice Testimony During a Senate hearing, Credit Suisse bank laid out a detailed defense, saying that the perpetrators were a small group of Swiss-based bankers, and that while it wanted to hand over more client names, it was caught between U.S. and … Continue reading
\n<\/a>Member Statements for Download<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Swiss](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Siss-Banking-Secrecy-300x232.jpg\")
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