Credit Suisse Fined after Pleading Guilty to U.S. Tax Charge
The U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") announced that Credit Suisse AG will pay a total of $2.6 billion to various agencies after pleading guilty to conspiracy to aid and assist U.S. taxpayers in filing false income tax returns and other documents with the IRS.
This case represents the first time since the days of Ivan Boesky and Drexel Burnham that a bank as prominent as Credit Suisse AG has been required to plead guilty to a criminal offense. While the financial penalty that it has agreed to pay is itself of historic proportions, the bank also was required to consent to several onerous terms, including the appointment of an independent monitor for two years, in order to preserve its ability to do business in the United States.