Credit score Suisse to pay $234M to settle French tax fraud case

PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors stated Monday that Credit score Suisse has agreed to pay 238 million euros ($234 million) to settle tax fraud allegations, the newest blow for the embattled Swiss financial institution.

The financial institution pays 123 million euros in fines and 115 million in damages and curiosity to France, whose investigators will shut an inquiry launched in 2016 on attainable costs of aggravated tax fraud laundering and unlawful soliciting, French prosecutor Jean-Francois Bohnert stated in an announcement.

French media have reported that Credit score Suisse representatives courted rich French clients to steer them to open accounts with the financial institution that weren’t declared to French tax authorities.

Credit score Suisse says it doesn’t acknowledge prison legal responsibility within the settlement.

“The financial institution is happy to resolve this matter, which marks one other essential step within the proactive decision of litigation and legacy points,” the corporate stated in an announcement.

It comes only a week after Credit score Suisse agreed to pay $495 million in a U.S. settlement over a yearslong dispute tied to mortgage-backed securities, an funding car that performed a central function within the 2008 monetary disaster.

The settlements are simply the newest of a string of woes for Credit score Suisse, together with dangerous bets on hedge funds and a spying scandal involving UBS.

A Swiss court docket fined the financial institution greater than $2 million in June for failing to forestall cash laundering linked to a Bulgarian prison gang greater than 15 years in the past.

CEO Thomas Gottstein introduced in July that he was resigning after 2 1/2 years within the job because the financial institution posted a internet lack of 1.6 billion Swiss francs (about $1.7 billion) within the second quarter.