An ongoing investigation has uncovered hundreds of accounts at Swiss bank Credit Suisse with potential Nazi-era links, US Senator Chuck Grassley said ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday focused on banks’ role during the Holocaust.
An investigation has identified 890 accounts at Swiss lender Credit Suisse with potential Nazi links, US Senator Chuck Grassley said ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday examining banks’ role in facilitating the Holocaust.
Grassley, who chairs the committee and has tracked the probe for years, said the accounts include previously undisclosed wartime holdings linked to the German Foreign Office, a German arms manufacturer and the German Red Cross.
UBS, which acquired Credit Suisse in an emergency takeover in 2023, said last year it was working with former US prosecutor Neil Barofsky to uncover the full extent of Nazi-linked accounts held at its former rival. In prepared testimony for the hearing, UBS said both banks had apologised and reached a global settlement in 1999 that was meant to bring closure to Holocaust-related claims, describing the current probe as a voluntary initiative.
Grassley told reporters he has received two reports and an investigative update on Barofsky’s work. The review, he said, found evidence that Credit Suisse’s banking ties with the Nazi paramilitary SS were more extensive than previously known, including an account held by the SS’s economic arm. He added that new details had also emerged about a scheme that helped Nazis flee to Argentina.
UBS said it accepts and deeply regrets that the Second World War era was a dark chapter in the history of Swiss banking. “We approach today’s topic with solemn respect,” Robert Karofsky, President of UBS Americas, said in prepared remarks.
Karofsky added that UBS fully committed to getting the investigation back on track after taking over Credit Suisse and has taken extensive steps to support Barofsky’s review. “Our priority is to complete this review so that the world can benefit from the findings in the final report,” he said.
According to aides to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the investigation is expected to conclude by early summer, with the final report due by the end of the year.
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