Credit Suisse leaks: secret wealth amounting to over $100bn 'revealed'

A massive leak from one of the world’s biggest private banks, Credit Suisse, has shown secret wealth amounting to more than 100bn Swiss francs (over $100 billion) of clients notorious for drug trafficking, money-laundering and corruption, reported global media organisations.

The revelations are part of data from a whistle-blower that was investigated by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in collaboration with various media organisations.

The leak, being called "Suisse secrets", points to widespread failures of due diligence by Credit Suisse, despite repeated pledges to weed out dubious clients and illicit funds, reported The Guardian.

In a statement, however, Credit Suisse "strongly rejected" allegations of wrongdoing.

The report, published by The New York Times, and The Guardian among other prominent media organisations, comes at a time when Credit Suisse became the first major Swiss bank in the country’s history to face criminal charges and also lost its chairman, António Horta-Osório, after he broke coronavirus protocols.

The bank was also hit by a scandal over the allegations that it helped launder money from the cocaine trade on behalf of the Bulgarian mafia.

Where did the data come from?

One whistle-blower leaked the information on the accounts ranging from the 1940s to the 2010s to Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which shared it with the OCCRP and 46 other news organisations including The New York Times, The Guardian of Britain and France's Le Monde.

“I believe that Swiss banking secrecy laws are immoral," the whistle-blower explained their motivation for leaking the records more than a year ago in a statement. "The pretext of protecting financial privacy is merely a fig leaf covering the shameful role of Swiss banks as collaborators of tax evaders. … This situation enables corruption and starves developing countries of much-needed tax revenue."

How was the data checked?

Once the data was shared, journalists spent months interviewing insiders and checking the data against other sources, including company records, official gazettes, court files, and criminal investigations.

"In dozens of cases, the account numbers in the data matched those found in external documents. The dates of birth of over 150 account-holders in the leak also matched those found in public records," the OCCRP said.

They also reached out to the clients whose information was leaked. In several cases, they confirmed the existence of the accounts listed in the data, the statement added.

Investigation revealed that while some accounts in the data were open as far back as the 1940s, more than two-thirds were opened since 2000. Many of those were still open well into the last decade, and a portion remains open today.

The total amount of money held in the accounts at the maximum was more than $100 billion.

Who is named in the data?

As per the data, there are more than 18,000 Credit Suisse accounts and 30,000 account holders, with some clients holding multiple accounts, while many accounts are controlled by multiple clients.

Some of the account holders are people, while others are legal entities such as companies. They are domiciled in more than 120 jurisdictions and represent over 160 nationalities, as per the revelation.

People listed as holding amounts worth millions of dollars in Credit Suisse accounts were King Abdullah II of Jordan and the two sons of the former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak.

Data also reveals that 15 intelligence figures from around the world, or their close family members, have held accounts at Credit Suisse. The clients also included a Hong Kong stock exchange boss jailed for bribery, a billionaire who ordered the murder of his Lebanese pop star girlfriend and executives who looted Venezuela’s state oil company.

1,400 Pakistanis included in the leak: report

Pakistan-based The News reported that the investigation also revealed that 1,400 Pakistani citizens are linked to approximately 600 Credit Suisse accounts. The individuals include those who have been or are currently under investigation by the National Accountability Bureau, according to the report.

Credit Suisse denies allegations

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse strongly rejected the allegations and inferences, saying that matters presented are "predominantly historical, in some cases dating back as far as the 1960s, including at a time where laws, practices and expectations of financial institutions were very different from where they are now".

In a statement, it said that it had received "numerous inquiries" from the consortium in the past three weeks and reviewed many of the accounts in question.

Credit Suisse denies wrongdoing after client data leaked to media

"Approximately 90% of the reviewed accounts are today closed or were in the process of closure prior to receipt of the press inquiries, of which over 60% were closed before 2015," it said.

"Of the remaining active accounts, we are comfortable that appropriate due diligence, reviews and other control-related steps were taken in line with our current framework.

We will continue to analyse the matters and take additional steps if necessary."