Credit Suisse lives to bank another day.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday the Swiss bank pleaded guilty to aiding US tax cheats, making it the first financial institution to do so in decades.
While the bank admitted guilt and will pay a $2.6 billion fine and be subject to increased regulatory supervision, it will continue to do business in the US, Holder said.
That eliminates one of the main deterrents in Holder’s campaign to end “too big to jail.”
The toothless decision was expected because revoking Credit Suisse’s license would have had major financial repercussions, according to one lawyer before the plea was announced.
The indictment isn’t that different from UBS’s 2008 tax-evasion plea deal with the FBI. The bank paid $780 million and agreed to a deferred prosecution deal, which essentially shielded the company from guilt.
The Swiss bank pleaded guilty to a single charge of tax evasion. It conspired to hide Americans’ money in secret offshore accounts so they wouldn’t have to pay US taxes, Holder said.
Hundreds of employees were involved, Holder said. One part of the bank had been hiding funds for as long as a century.
Along the way, documents were destroyed in order to hide evidence, the top US law man said.
The bank will pay $715 million of the fine to the New York state regulators.
The state’s top regulator, Benjamin Lawsky, is pressing Credit Suisse to fire any employees who were involved in the scheme.
Three of those employees — Markus Walder, Susanne Ruegg Meier and Marco Parenti Adami — have already been charged.
Lawsky “intends to install an aggressive and fair monitor who will report directly to [his office] in order to further address the deficiencies” at the bank.
“Facilitating tax evasion was a strategy and business model that the firm engaged in for decades,” Lawsky said in a statement.