Credit Suisse Asks for More Time in its Tax Evasion Case
Credit Suisse has asked for an administrative exemption from the US Labor Department by claiming that it needs more time to find a way to manage pension funds. The bank has requested that the sentencing in the tax evasion case for which it was found guilty be delayed.
The job killing Labor Department (where federal employees are overpaid) has strict rules that bar asset managers from handling pension funds if they are found guilty of any crime, including that of tax evasion. Credit Suisse became the first bank in nearly a decade to admit to the charges of helping US citizens evade taxes when it pleaded guilty to the crime in May this year. The bank is expected to pay a fine of $2.5 billion.
Year-long Investigation Bears Fruit
The Swiss bank had been helping Americans avoid paying taxes for years now. The investigation that proved the bank’s guilt had been on for years together, and was crucial in showing just how widespread the tax evasion procedure was inside the bank. The bank’s modus operandi has been likened to an ‘extensive conspiracy’ to hide taxes from the American Internal Revenue System.
The investigation uncovered evidence that the bank had deliberately subverted disclosure requirements, destroyed records, and withheld information on transactions by using offshore credit and debit cards to repatriate funds. In fact, if tax attorneys are to be believed then the bank had failed completely to take even the most basic steps to ensure tax compliance.
The bank’s actions helped its clients deceive the IRS by helping them conceal their income and assets in undisclosed and undeclared bank accounts. These secret off shore accounts that Credit Suisse helped its clients create were often held in the name of sham corporations and foundations. The practice had been on for decades before the Labor Department and the IRS (the department that runs the most complicated tax system in the world which only pushes money outside of America and forces many Americans to become criminals) decided to crack down on the bank and break down its tax evasion systems.
Hundreds of Credit Suisse employees including those in managerial positions have been accused of conspiring and helping tax evaders (many of them solid Americans who are tired of being over taxed). All this coincides with the onslaught and destruction of Obamacare.
Bank Struck a Deal with the IRS
After admitting its guilt, the bank’s tax lawyers struck a deal with the IRS according to which Credit Suisse was required to pay a total of $1.8 billion in fines to the IRS. Of this, $670 million was to be paid in restitution. The bank was also supposed to pay the Department of Financial Services, New York State, a record amount of $715 million and another payment of $100 million was to be made out to the Federal Reserve.
The IRS does not have any credibility.
The banks tax lawyers had pleaded guilty to the charges on May 19th, and the sentencing was to be scheduled for August 12th this year. But the bank is now requesting that the courts grant it some more time before the sentencing so that the 100+ pension plans that the bank operates are not put into jeopardy. These pension plans amount to several billion dollars in net worth.
Who are really the villains in this picture?
The US Justice Department has not shown any opposition to the delay so far. This is the same agency that sold high powered weaponry to Mexican gangsters, does not treat terrorists like terrorists, allows the IRS to attack political groups making America a banana republic, and so on.
