US indicts Swiss bankers

The US indicted four Credit Suisse bankers Wednesday on charges of helping US taxpayers to hide money in secret Swiss accounts to avoid US taxes.

The four bankers and unnamed co-conspirators were accused of offering US customers the chance to open accounts in Switzerland at the understanding that the money would be hidden from US tax authorities.

It said that, as of 2008, the bank hosted thousands of such accounts holding up to $3 billion in assets.

"The conspiracy dates back to 1953 and involved two generations of US tax evaders, including US customers who inherited secret accounts at the international bank," the justice department said in a statement.

Bank officials "knew and should have known that they were aiding and abetting US customers in evading their US income taxes," the in-dictment said.

The three Swiss nationals named are Emanuel Agustino, Michele Bergantino and Roger Schaerer, along with Italian Marco Parenti Adami.

Agustino and Bergantino had traveled to the US to market the bank's tax-evasion opportunities, the indictment said.

Agustino continued to offer such services at two other Swiss banks after he left Credit Suisse, it added.

The four face possible sentences of up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The charges said they had helped Credit Suisse customers travel to Switzerland, the Bahamas and elsewhere to make use of the secret ac-counts.

Credit Suisse itself is not a part of the investigation, according to the bank, and the indictment said the bank began shutting down its US cross-border banking services in 2008.

"We are cooperating with the authorities in their investigation of these individuals," Credit Suisse spokesman David Walker said.

The indictment came after the recent arrest in the US of another Credit Suisse banker on similar charges.

That banker, identified by the Financial Times newspaper and other media as Christos Bagios, had earlier worked at another Swiss banking group, US which came under US pressure in 2008 over its alleged marketing of secret accounts to US tax evaders.

USwas eventually forced to pay a $780 million fine.

AFP