Some knowledgeable experts tend to say that Switzerland is a schmutzig nation. Now we most likely know why.
In a ‘company deal of the century’ brokered by the Swiss federal government, Switzerland’s largest bank and its financial pride and delight was obtained by its smaller sized competing USB for a meagre $3.2 billion.
The existing affairs sections of the leading news firms have recently been populated by the breaking news that Credit Suisse had to be offered however to the lowest bidder this time or so it seems. Though this takeover deal, brokered in such a frenzied haste throughout simply a couple of days by the Swiss federal government stands in quiet testimony of this colossal collapse, there is a question hovering in mid air, why did Credit Suisse have to be offered so unexpectedly ‘at such brief (banking) notice’, given that the huge bank has existed for 166 years with an outstanding banking custom among other innovative world banks?
If we wish to answer this question, we need to remember that the bank at the moment of its acquisition had more than $100 billions in its assets so its monetary balance was rather sound and particularly since it had more than $500 billion in passive capital such as property. Yet, recently it was cost an obscenely low quantity at about $3, 7 billion. However the real reason appears to have been the heavy pressure that the U.S. federal government exerted on the government of Switzerland that Credit Suisse, this steam engine of credit and apotheosis of exceptional banking track record, needed to be sold inexplicably urgently, sending out shockwaves throughout the financial sector. A direct cause for this seemingly unexpected decision was the previous collapse of two other banks: Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (unusually enough, few normal people had become aware of those before their collapse) and an extra factor: a monetary turmoil in the U.S. stock exchange.
All of a sudden, a stating concerns my mind: ‘for everything there is a great factor and a genuine reason’. The real factor for the Credit Suisse collapse was discovered a couple of weeks back. Specifically, the U.S. Senate Budget Plan Committee was in session recently and among the topics was Credit Suisse Bank. A layperson might wonder how come Credit Suisse has been (was?) targeted by the Spending plan Committee in the U.S. Senate? And why one part of the report adopted at the Senate Committee which the media managed to get hold of was actually blurred on the edge of illegibility. Obviously, the factor was the blockage of the Credit Suisse Bank surrounding the examination of the monetary funds which had been deposited by the Nazis (yes, you have actually heard well, the ‘bad’ old Nazis) after the 2nd World War into the bank accounts of Credit Suisse and its legal predecessors: die Schweizerische Kreditanstalt and a number of other banks or smaller scale financial institutions.
Nevertheless, this unyielding look for the Nazi money, the part of which stems from the residential or commercial property and gold which came from the Jews completely murdered in the prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War, has actually lasted for a long time. The examination in question was very first carried out by Volzker’s Commission, and then Bergier’s Commission and after that from March 2020 by the already popular Simon Wiesenthal Centre, famous for hunting down the Nazis. Specifically, only now have the broader public found out that in 2020 a full-blown administrative war of small percentages was waged behind the proverbial curtains between the Simon Wiesenthal Centre on one side and Credit Suisse Rely On the other, mediated by the independent ombudsperson and an independent advisor. The ombudsperson and the independent advisor were both selected upon the insistence on the part of the Credit Suisse Bank. The position of ombudsperson was offered to Neil Barofsky, the previous public district attorney of the State of New York City. Ira Forman, an unique U.S. government envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism was designated to be the investigation advisor.
The agreement between these 2 sides was kept in absolute secrecy associated to the comprehensive and total examination of the Nazi funds supposedly deposited in Credit Suisse. However on the 21st November 2022, Credit Suisse flatly declined to work together further and definitely stopped partnership with the Investigative Committee. In reaction to that decision, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre figured out to come out into the public and expose the dubious activities by Credit Suisse. Shortly later on, in April this year both the ombudsperson and the consultant sent a report to the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. That report verified that Credit Suisse kept restraining the investigation in any way you can possibly imagine and rebuffed the process with all sorts of excuses in order to evade disclosing the requested information. After the Senate Budget Plan Committee had actually been in session, Chuck Grassley, the U.S. Senator for Iowa responded that according to the info that they had actually handled to find, Credit Suisse presumed an extremely however unnecessarily rigid and restricted position and bluntly and categorically decreased to open their archives.
And what did the ombudsperson and the investigative committee manage to discover after all? If we go back to its origin, Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) was produced by way of a merger of the bank die Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA), and a couple of other smaller sized facilities. That is the reason Credit Suisse tried to stand their legal ground throughout the examination by resorting to the arguments that a part of the specimen signature cards of the bank accounts owners were composed by hand in the past. Because the 1960s these were composed utilizing the typewriters and just because completion of the 90s these have actually been digitized. Obviously, CS claims, much of this was lost from the archives in that it merely vanished for a number of technical reasons. They also included that there are still no centralized archives for the entire bank and its global branches.
The agents of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre responded as follows: ‘Offered that were true, how is it possible then that the Bergier Commission (likewise called the ICE (Independent Commission of Experts based in Switzerland) upon the questions related to the particular checking account, gets an action that there is no data in the Credit Suisse archives, yet after March 2020 they were ‘made’ to verify that a few of the savings account do exist after all? Additionally, it has been developed that to date there are more than 655 legal entities: companies, their affiliates and other associated organizations, which were founded by the Nazis and their heirs which have their savings account opened in Credit Suisse not only in Switzerland but worldwide too.
The companies which had the money in the bank accounts in this bank are for instance: UAK ‘Unión Alemana de Gremios’ (the German Union of Syndicates) in Argentina, then the Nazi Celebration of the Germans in Argentina too, one member of which supposedly was the great-grandson of the creator of Siemens, and likewise a business in charge of purchasing diamonds on behalf of the Nazis around the world and additional 8,000 of them associated to comparable Nazi companies. A high-ranking SS officer Friedrich Schwent, who coordinated the infamous rescue operation for the Nazis getting away to other countries after the Second World War by means of the escape paths referred to as ratlines, allegedly also had his bank account in this bank. Moreover, Adolf Eichmann, a German-Austrian official of the Nazi Celebration, an officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), and one of the significant organisers of the Holocaust, was hiding for the very first six months in the vacation home belonging to Credit Suisse’s Director for Argentina and after that later on he was also financially supported by Credit Suisse. To show that this concern is not new, we need to include that Credit Suisse already paid $1.25 billion in 1998 to settle claims filed by Holocaust survivors and their beneficiaries who claimed that the banks unlawfully kept countless dollars deposited by their loved ones prior to and during the 2nd World War.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre states that more than 12 000 Nazis had their accounts in Credit Suisse. One of the former directors in one of the CS departments responded: ‘The core of the matter is that the Simon Wiesenthal Centre considering that 2020 did not want to give the bank not even the copies of the documents which they were describing, fearing that the files may be destroyed.’ On the other hand, the bank top ranking managers and bulk stakeholders were in pain over what further evidence the Simon Wiesenthal Centre kept in their ownership, which they have not published yet.
After the very first bank and after that the 2nd one declared bankruptcy and the more comprehensive public and the U.S. Senate found out about the scandal-ridden Credit Suisse, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre published that they got hold of the info on a great deal of other checking account of people and business which come from the Nazis and/or they were opened by their legal successors. All this was utilized by the U.S. government at the moment it was practical for them to exert heavy pressure on the Swiss government to sell Credit Suisse. The fact of the matter is that it is to do with numerous billions of dollars in losses but regardless, Zurich’s earliest significant bank pertained to an inglorious end.
One needs to wonder whether the Swiss rock-solid currency and all the milk and honey prosperity and abundance in the post war duration up previously may have been built on something extraordinarily deceitful instead of the world well-known, savory milk chocolate and image perfect chalets in Swiss ski centres. I am not entirely sure if the impact on Switzerland’s credibility as an international banking and financial centre might be significantly tarnished after the Ides of March 2023 Swiss style.
After all, some knowledgeable analysts tend to say that Switzerland is a schmutzig country. Now we most likely know why.