The US government is pressing Swiss financial services company Credit Suisse to accept complicity in helping wealthy Americans hide untaxed money in Swiss bank accounts.
The federal authorities are seeking names of all US citizens who have accounts in Credit Suisse and had put in place extreme demands regarding potential fines, reported Reuters citing Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag.
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The US is pushing Credit Suisse harder after one of its former employees pleaded guilty to helping US clients avoid taxes.
"Washington is asking for a guilty plea," the newspaper quoted an anonymous source close to the bank.
Meanwhile, Swiss finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf has sought fair and equal treatment of Swiss banks under probe during her discussion over tax issues with US justice minister Eric Holder.
The American agencies have undertaken criminal investigation against Swiss banks on how they helped wealthy Americans bypass tax.
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By GlobalDataEarlier in April 2014, Credit Suisse announced that it furthered its provisions for tax and securities law matters in the United States to 895 million Swiss francs ($1 billion).
Although Swiss bank secrecy laws prevent banks from listing out the names of account holders, Swiss authorities handed over data on US clients of Credit Suisse’s national rival UBS to US in a bid to bar them from issuing an indictment against the bank earlier in 2009.
Credit Suisse has urged the Swiss government to use emergency law if no other solution could be found, Schweiz am Sonntag quoted unnamed sources.
