Multiple reports shed new light on Credit Suisse’s historic service to Nazi clients and Nazi-linked accounts, which in some cases continued into 2020.
The reports, published by the United States Senate Budget Committee on Holocaust Remembrance Day, detail an internal investigation conducted by a forensic research firm hired by Credit Suisse and initially overseen by an Independent Ombudsman who was inexplicably fired by the bank during the course of the review.
While the resulting reports are incomplete and hampered by scope restrictions, they reveal almost 100 previously unrevealed Nazi-linked accounts and related information, and raise new questions about the bank’s potential support for Nazis fleeing justice after World War II through so-called “Rat Lines.”
In that sense, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (CSW) expressed his support and appreciation for the continuation of the bipartisan investigation, following his June 21 meeting with the United States Senate Budget Committee to discuss the ongoing investigation into the retention of Nazi assets by foreign banks during and after World War II World.
“CSW appreciates the Budget Committee’s recognition of the right of an institution, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, to investigate and hold accountable any entity with historical ties to Nazi party members or WWII looting. Today, more than ever, the CSW is committed to this mission and will continue to work to ensure that those who benefited from the horrors of World War II are vetted and held accountable to the fullest extent possible.”
Among the key findings of the US committee’s report it was revealed that Credit Suisse appears to have maintained accounts, the vast majority of which have not been previously disclosed, of at least 99 people who were senior Nazi officials in Germany or members of Nazi-affiliated groups in Argentina.
Besides, 70 Argentine accounts with plausible links to Nazis based in Argentina were opened with Credit Suisse after 1945, and at least 14 of those accounts remained open into the 21st century, some as late as 2020.
AlixPartners identified 21 accounts from a list of notorious high-level Nazis provided by SWC, including one belonging to a Nazi major who was sentenced at Nuremberg and one belonging to a convicted SS major. The sentenced commander’s account remained open until 2002, but the bank has yet to provide information on assets in this account or 85 others identified.
The bank held accounts belonging to a German executive who was tried and acquitted in Nuremberg and a Nazi scientist who was imprisoned during the Nuremberg trials, among other accounts that the bank had not previously discovered.
Finally, it was detailed that a senior SS officer and representative of the Nazi company Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe GmbH (DWB) had an account at the bank.
“The Simon Wiesenthal Center is forever grateful to President Whitehouse, Ranking Member Grassley, and all members of the Senate Budget Committee for the courage to press forward with their investigation,” concluded the Rabbi Avraham Cooper, Associate Dean of CSW and Director of Global Social Action.
Keep reading:
Nazi money in Argentina: a list and the key role the country played in the gold route of Hitler’s followers
Source-www.infobae.com