Credit Suisse to pay €238m to settle French tax fraud case

Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has agreed to pay the French government €238m in a tax fraud settlement deal (Keystone/Gaetan Bally/AP)

Credit Suisse has agreed to pay €238 million to settle tax fraud allegations, French prosecutors have said, in the latest blow for the embattled Swiss bank.

The bank will pay €123m in fines and €115m in damages and interest to France, whose investigators will close an inquiry launched in 2016 on possible charges of aggravated tax fraud laundering and illegal soliciting, French prosecutor Jean-Francois Bohnert said in a statement.

French media have reported that Credit Suisse representatives courted wealthy French customers to persuade them to open accounts with the bank which were not declared to French tax authorities.

Credit Suisse said it does not acknowledge criminal liability in the settlement.

“The bank is pleased to resolve this matter, which marks another important step in the proactive resolution of litigation and legacy issues,” the company said in a statement.

It comes just a week after Credit Suisse agreed to pay 495 million dollars in a US settlement over a years-long dispute tied to mortgage-backed securities, an investment vehicle that played a central role in the 2008 financial crisis.

The settlements are just the latest in a string of woes for Credit Suisse, including bad bets on hedge funds and a spying scandal involving UBS.

A Swiss court fined the bank more than 2 million US dollars in June for failing to prevent money laundering linked to a Bulgarian criminal gang more than 15 years ago.

Chief executive Thomas Gottstein announced in July that he was resigning after two-and-a-half years in the job as the bank posted a net loss of 1.6 billion Swiss francs in the second quarter.