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<\/a><\/p>\nFrom left to right: Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Robert Karofsky, Global Wealth Management President at UBS Americas, Barbara Levi, General Counsel at UBS Group AG, and Neil Barofsky, partner at Jenner and Block LLP, testify during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. (Roberto Sschmidt \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The findings were discovered when independent investigators audited UBS, the Swiss bank that acquired Credit Suisse in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the investigation has found to date shows that Credit Suisse\u2019s involvement was more extensive than was previously known, and it underscores the importance of continuing to engage in research efforts about this horrific era of modern history,\u201d Neil Barofsky, a lawyer overseeing the inquiry, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Barofsky\u2019s report found 890 accounts potentially linked to Nazis: 628 individuals and 262 legal entities.<\/p>\n
The investigation also found that Credit Suisse provided support to the \u201cratlines\u201d that enabled Nazis to escape Europe and enter Argentina, opening and maintaining accounts for the Argentine Immigration Office.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Barofsky said in his testimony, Credit Suisse provided funds \u201cto finance bribes, obtain fraudulent travel documents, and pay for living expenses and transportation for fugitives, including perpetrators of the Holocaust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barofsky\u2019s investigation into UBS also found multiple previously unreported instances of the forced sale of property owned by Jews during the Holocaust. It also found that Credit Suisse held accounts for the German foreign office during the Holocaust, which dealt with the deportations of Jews.<\/p>\n
Last May, Argentina declassified more than 1,800 documents related to the ratlines at the behest of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, named for the late Nazi hunter. Barofsky\u2019s research into Credit Suisse\u2019s involvement in the ratlines is ongoing, he said.<\/p>\n
The findings represent a potentially explosive capstone to years of investigation into Credit Suisse\u2019s Nazi ties.<\/p>\n
Jewish organizations have long claimed that in addition to playing a key role in financially supporting Nazi Germany, Credit Suisse has held onto money looted from Jews long after the war. In 1999, the Swiss bank paid Jewish groups and Holocaust survivors a settlement of $1.25 billion in restitution for withholding money from Jews who had tried to withdraw their funds.<\/p>\n
In 2020, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish advocacy group, alleged that the bank had also hidden information about its ties to Nazis who fled to Argentina.<\/p>\n
The bank hired Barofsky the following year to investigate its record but fired him in 2022, angering U.S. lawmakers including Sen. Chuck Grassley, now chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2023, as the top Republican on the Budget Committee, Grassley charged that Credit Suisse was obfuscating its Nazi ties, saying, \u201cWhen it comes to investigating Nazi matters, righteous justice demands that we must leave no stone unturned. Credit Suisse has thus far failed to meet that standard.\u201d Barofsky was soon rehired.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s hearing grew heated when Barofsky said the bank was still interfering with his investigation. He argued that his investigation could not be completed without access to 150 documents related to a 1998 restitution settlement between UBS and Holocaust survivors, which Barofsky says may contain the names of specific account holders he is investigating.<\/p>\n
Robert Karofsky, president of UBS Americas, alleged Tuesday that giving Barofsky access to those documents could violate attorney-client privilege.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaterials from the 1990\u2019s are not within the scope of the Ombudsperson\u2019s oversight, which is meant to be focused on Credit Suisse\u2019s history and World War II-era conduct,\u201d Karofsky said.<\/p>\n
Still, Barofsky said, his report will be incomplete without those documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be unable to provide assurance in my final report that the investigation has truly left no stone unturned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n