Credit Suisse's 'Suspect of concealing a Nazi account' reignites...Customer File Discovery

The U.S. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that customer information of those involved, which had not been disclosed, was found in an investigation into allegations of concealing accounts related to the Nazi regime in Germany in the past by Swiss bank Credit Suisse (CS).

Supervisor Neil Barrowski, who is investigating the allegations, said in a letter to the U.S. Senate last month that the investigation team found a client file that had been concealed with the mark "American Blacklist," according to the WSJ.The WSJ explained that

'American blacklist' refers to people who have done business with the Nazis or the Axis or provided them with funds.

The investigation team found vast books, microfilms, and computer hard disks ranging from 3,600 boxes in Zurich's bank archives and analyzed the data stored by the bank in the form of "customer identification."

As a result, we obtained data from blacklisted customers in the United States who supported the Nazis, and a preliminary search of 99 previously known Nazi names showed that 13 names matched.

"Investigations have identified a number of individuals and corporations that have been linked to Nazi atrocities but whose relationship with Credit Suisse (CS) is unknown or only partially known," Barrowski said in the letter.

In interviewing former employees of the bank and others, Barovski also said he also found circumstantial evidence that the bank covered up some Nazi accounts during an investigation in the 1990s.

The outside investigators concealed the role of CS by not sharing key information, such as the accounts of Nazi SS officers, or providing only the requested information.

Earlier, CS agreed to establish a fund for the bereaved families of Nazi massacre victims in 2003, but since then, there has been a controversy that hidden funds remain.

Suspicions reignited in 2020 when the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an American Jewish human rights group, claimed that the Swiss bank, the predecessor of CS, had more than 12,000 Nazi-related accounts.

At the time, the U.S. Senate Budget Committee said in a report that at least 99 Nazi-related accounts were in CS, some of which were not closed until 2020.

In response, CS appointed Supervisor Barovski to investigate, but the struggle continued, with him fired after a conflict with the bank, and when CS fell into a financial crisis in March 2023 and was acquired by rival bank UBS, Barovski returned to work on the investigation in December of the same year.

Barrowski plans to announce its final findings by early next year (2026).

"We are committed to fully processing the accounts linked to Nazi," UBS said. "Since acquiring CS, our top priority is to ensure a thorough and comprehensive investigation is carried out."