Source says US eager to seek guilty please from Credit Suisse, others

A person familiar with the negotiations disclosed to Bloomberg that the US government is pressing for guilty pleas from the parent companies of banks currently under probe, which include Credit Suisse Group AG. The news agency noted that this alleged move was a departure from past strategies, wherein victories from smaller units are welcomed. Nonetheless, Bloomberg said US authorities had started speaking about imminent criminal actions against bank holding companies in speeches, Twitter posts and even a video from the US Attorney General this week.

Credit Suisse has been attempting to resolve US probe on claims that its bank had aided entities and individuals to evade tax. According to another person familiar with the talks, the penalty that the Swiss bank could incur could be more than a billion dollars. A third source has told the news agency that the talks between US authorities and Credit Suisse could lead to $1.6 billion in penalties or more. The people whom Bloomberg had spoken with refused to be named as the talks are reportedly confidential.

On the other hand, this does not mean that the US will no longer consider a guilty plea from a smaller unit, said the source who had earlier told about the US government's focus on parent companies. On the other hand, attorney Bryan Skarlatos at Kostelanetz & Fink LLP in New York, who also teaches tax prosecutions at New York University School of Law, said that an impending action on Credit Suisse, for example, could raise alarm for customers and businesses who have transactions with the Swiss bank.

"There could be serious regulatory consequences that would prevent the bank from engaging in its usual business in the US. The ultimate victims would be the employees and shareholders," he said.

Tax lawyer Scott Michel at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington said that in Credit Suisse's case, a charge against the bank's smaller unit could happen instead in this case. He reasoned, "It has the earmarks of a structural step that somebody has thought of to try to protect the bank as a whole in the event that a guilty plea is required."

Tags

Credit Suisse Group AG, US Attorney General Eric Holder

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