After a six year long criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, Credit Suisse AG pleaded guilty in federal court on May 19, 2014 to federal charges that it had engaged in a decades long criminal conspiracy to aid and assist U.S. taxpayers in filing false income tax returns and other documents with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

According to the plea agreement, Credit Suisse has agreed to pay a total of $2.6 billion;

1. $1.13 billion fine to the Department of Justice,
2. $670 million restitution to the IRS, $100 million to the Federal Reserve, and
3. $715 million to the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Credit Suisse had previously agreed to pay approximately $196 million in disgorgement, interest and penalties to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for violating federal securities laws by providing cross-border brokerage and investment advisory services to U.S. clients without first registering with the SEC.

According to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Credit Suisse employed a variety of means to assist U.S. clients in concealing their undeclared accounts, including:

1. assisting clients in using sham entities to hide undeclared accounts;

2. soliciting IRS forms that falsely stated, under penalties of perjury, that the sham entities were the beneficial owners of the assets in the accounts;

3. failing to maintain in the United States records related to the accounts;

4. destroying account records sent to the United States for client review;

5. using Credit Suisse managers and employees as unregistered investment advisors on undeclared accounts;

6. facilitating withdrawals of funds from the undeclared accounts by either providing hand-delivered cash in the United States or using Credit Suisse’s correspondent bank accounts in the United States;

7. structuring transfers of funds to evade currency transaction reporting requirements; and

8. providing offshore credit and debit cards to repatriate funds in the undeclared accounts.

Deputy Attorney General James A. Cole said that

1. “Credit Suisse’s guilty plea is just the latest effort by the department to slam the door shut on undeclared bank accounts, phony trusts and other foreign schemes used by U.S. taxpayers to evade taxes.
2. We will continue to hold to account the bankers, the brokers and other professionals in Switzerland and around the world as well as the institutions that trained and directed them to use bank secrecy laws to protect U.S. tax cheats.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304422704579571732769356894