Credit Suisse has been scrambling to cut down on fallout after newspapers reported on over 18,000 leaked accounts connected to criminals, reported human rights abusers and sanctioned people, like dictators, CNBC writes.
The leaked information reveals that the accounts held over $100 billion, and came from a whistleblower sharing his findings with a German paper, Süddeutsche Zeitung.
CNBC writes that clients of the bank included “an international cast of unsavory characters,” among them a Yemeni spy chief who has been accused of torturing, Venezuelan officials involved in corruption and sons of ex-Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak. The accounts had been open at various times between the 1940s and the 2010s.
The report notes that Swiss banks, which have been known for strict secrecy laws protecting clients, aren’t supposed to take money linked to criminal activity.
But that isn’t usually very strictly enforced.
Around 90% of the accounts detailed in the leak had already been closed or were about to be. Credit Suisse said it’s “comfortable” that any other accounts had been vetted properly.
Credit Suisse has said it “strongly rejects” the accusations about its practices.
“The matters presented are predominantly historical, in some cases dating back as far as the 1940s, and the accounts of these matters are based on partial, inaccurate, or selective information taken out of context, resulting in tendentious interpretations of the bank’s business conduct,” the bank said.
PYMNTS wrote about Credit Suisse’s recent issues, which have seen the company accused of not taking the right precautions to protect against fraud.
Read more: Credit Suisse’s Swiss AML Case Reminds Us That Fraud Is Old School
A Bulgarian drug gang, reportedly, was able to launder millions of Swiss francs through the bank between 2004 and 2008, with the prosecution now seeking $46 million from the bank.
The PYMNTS report notes that some money had been stuffed into suitcases, as the report says, and Reuters had reported that this was the first criminal trial of a major bank in the country.