BERLIN (AP) \u2014 A German newspaper and other media on Sunday said a leak of data from Credit Suisse, Switzerland\u2019s second-biggest bank, reveals details of the accounts of more than 30,000 clients \u2014 some of them unsavory \u2014 and points to possible failures of due diligence in checks on many customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Credit Suisse said in a statement that it \u201cstrongly rejects the allegations and insinuations about the bank\u2019s purported business practices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said it received the data anonymously through a secure digital mailbox over a year ago. It said it\u2019s unclear whether the source was an individual or a group, and the newspaper didn\u2019t make any payment or promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The newspaper said it evaluated the data, which ranged from the 1940s until well into the last decade, along with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and dozens of media partners including The New York Times and The Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said the data points to the bank having accepted \u201ccorrupt autocrats, suspected war criminals and human traffickers, drug dealers and other criminals\u201d as customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Credit Suisse said the allegations are \u201cpredominantly historical\u201d and that \u201cthe accounts of these matters are based on partial, inaccurate, or selective information taken out of context, resulting in tendentious interpretations of the bank\u2019s business conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bank said it had reviewed a large number of accounts potentially associated with the allegations, and about 90% of them \u201care today closed or were in the process of closure prior to receipt of the press inquiries, of which over 60% were closed before 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for accounts that remain active, the bank said it is \u201ccomfortable that appropriate due diligence, reviews and other control related steps were taken in line with our current framework.\u201d The bank also said the law prevents it from commenting on \u201cpotential client relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Switzerland has sought in recent years to shed its image as a haven for tax evasion, money laundering and the embezzlement of government funds, practices carried out through the misuse of its banking secrecy policies. But those laws still draw criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung published an excerpt from a statement by the source of the leak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI believe that Swiss banking secrecy laws are immoral,\u201d it said. \u201cThe pretext of protecting financial privacy is merely a fig leaf covering the shameful role of Swiss banks as collaborators of tax evaders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN (AP) \u2014 A German newspaper and other media on Sun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1253,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions\/1253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}