Senate Expands Investigation into Nazi Accounts at Credit Suisse during WWII

A US Senate committee has concluded that troubled Swiss bank Credit Suisse concealed information during previous investigations into accounts linked to Nazis during World War II.

The Senate Budget Committee said in a statement on Saturday that tens of thousands of documents discovered during an ongoing audit provided new evidence of accounts linked to the Nazis.

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The committee explained that the bank did not disclose these accounts during previous investigations, especially in the 1990s.

Credit Suisse had agreed to a $1.25 billion settlement of lawsuits filed against it by Holocaust survivors, but it was accused of not being completely open about its past dealings with the Nazis.

The Senate committee said Saturday that a newly discovered batch of files, including 3,600 physical documents and 40,000 microfilms, were found to have a “high level of connection” to the Nazis.

The findings were the result of an interim report by Neil Barofsky, who was fired from his position as an “independent investigator” by the bank in 2022 after being pressured to limit his investigations.

Barofsky was reappointed as a special investigator in 2023, after UBS acquired Credit Suisse in the wake of the bank’s major financial crisis.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Barofsky’s team discovered accounts controlled by elite officers in the Nazi "SS".

In his letter, Barofsky highlighted "remarkable" discoveries in Credit Suisse's research department, referring to a file "that was involved in the sale of looted Jewish assets". 

Contacted by AFP, UBS confirmed that it would provide Barofsky with all the necessary assistance in his work to shed light on "this tragic period".