Credit Suisse: Massive data breach sheds light on international corruption

The Credit Suisse data breach revealed that for several decades the bank served clients involved in human rights violations, corruption and drug trafficking, according to media reports based on data breaches of more than 18,000 accounts totaling over $100 billion.

Dictators, drug dealers, war criminals and human traffickers have been among the Swiss bank’s clients, according to information leaked to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. The publication has shared documents with 46 other media outlets around the world, including the British Guardian and the New York Times.

According to data analysis, these are accounts that were opened at Credit Suisse from the 1940s to the last decade, with at least two-thirds of those opened after 2000 and many still in existence today.

Credit Suisse’s clients include a convicted human trafficker in the Philippines, a Hong Kong stockbroker who was imprisoned for bribery, and an Egyptian billionaire who ordered the murder of a business associate.

Several heads of state, ministers, intelligence agents, oligarchs and businessmen of dubious reputation also have Swiss bank accounts. Among them is a former top manager of Siemens, who was convicted in 2008 of bribery. This is a customer with six bank accounts.

King Abdullah II of Jordan, former Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi, Algerian Abdelaziz Bouteflika and former Armenian President Armen Sarkissian also had secret accounts at Credit Suisse.

Credit Suisse, shortly after the media broke, released a statement saying it “rejects all allegations and insinuations regarding the bank’s deliberate business practices,” according to the publication. swissinfo.

According to the bank, articles published in the media “are based on incomplete, inaccurate or selective information taken out of context, which leads to biased interpretations of the bank’s business practices.”

The Credit Suisse statement also notes that it has verified the accounts in question following relevant media inquiries. About 90% of these accounts were closed or in the process of being closed at the time of the audit, with 60% closed before 2015.

To the above, it is worth adding information about other Credit Suisse clients – war criminals of the 3rd Reichwho kept their funds obtained by robbery and murder on the territory of the countries of Europe they conquered.

Bank Credit Suisse, through which the fugitive Nazis withdrew funds, is the new name of the once Swiss credit institution. It was created at the end of the 19th century together with the Algemeine Deutsch Credit Anstalt organization. The latter actively collaborated with the National Socialists. At the same time, Credit Suisse is also not the first time fighting off accusations of cooperation with Hitler’s supporters. So, in 2000, the company had to transfer more than a billion dollars to the fund for the victims of the Holocaust. According to a 20-year-old investigation, the authorities specifically extradited Jewish refugees to Nazi Germany, and the bank took their assets. Money was not in a hurry to give even after the war.

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