“Secret Suisse” scandal reveals accounts of over 1,000 discreet Thai banking clients in Switzerland
Some rich and wealthy figures in Thailand might have a lot of explaining to do after a massive data leak revealed that over 1,000 individuals from the country held secretive accounts with Switzerland’s second largest bank Credit Suisse over the past decades, a lender known to be rather “economical” in terms of internal controls and know-your-customer checks.
The data was leaked by an anonymous source to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and was subsequently analysed by an investigative team of journalists within the “Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project,” participating from international media including The Guardian, Le Monde, New York Times and Miami Herald, under the title “Suisse Secrets.”
On the Thai side, independent non-profit online newspaper Prachatai was part of the team.
Corrupt politicians, war criminals, drug dealers among Credit Suisse clients
The results of the global investigation, published on February 20, showed that the Swiss bank allegedly has accepted corrupt autocrats, suspected war criminals, human traffickers, drug dealers, tax offenders and other criminals from across the world as customers for many years.
Among the countries with the largest number of clients in the data are Thailand alongside Venezuela, Egypt with over 2,000 clients each and Ukraine likewise with over 1,000, all of them benefiting from a country which retains one of the world’s most secretive banking laws.
The journalists found dozens of dubious characters in the data, including an Algerian general accused of torture, the children of a brutal Azerbaijani strongman, a Serbian drug lord known as Misha Banana and the latter’s fellow-countryman Rodoljub Radulović, a Serbian securities fraudster.
There are disgraced executives such as Ronald Li Fook-shiu, founder and former chairman of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, who spent jail time for corruption, and former Siemens Nigeria head Eduard Seidel who was convicted of bribery in 2008 after it surfaced that he oversaw a campaign of industrial-scale graft in the country to secure lucrative contracts.
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos held accounts under fake names
One of the most notorious cases in Credit Suisse’s history involved the corrupt former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda. The couple are estimated to have siphoned as much as $10 billion from the Philippines during the three terms Ferdinand was president, which ended in 1986.
Parts of the money is known to have landed on Credit Suisse accounts which helped the Marcoses to open Swiss bank accounts under the fake names “William Saunders” and “Jane Ryan”. In 1995, a Zurich court ordered Credit Suisse and another bank to return $500 million of stolen funds to the Philippines.
From 2007 onwards, it became known that Credit Suisse was helping thousands of wealthy US citizens evade tax with secret accounts.
“Well known business people” and “high-level civil servants” from Thailand
With regards to Thailand, the report includes the names of some individuals who have been accused of fraud and tax evasion in the past, both expats and Thai nationals, according to Prachatai.
Thai account holders with Credit Suisse include people from a wide variety of backgrounds, the report said. It includes well-known business people from the jewelry, hotel and real estate industry, owners of construction supply companies, trade association leaders, former high-level civil servants, elected and junta-appointed politicians with business backgrounds and certain business people who back politicians.
The “Secret Suisse” revelations are an ongoing project and reporting will be continued as soon as additional information is becoming available, Prachatai wrote.
In a statement, Credit Suisse rejected the allegations “strongly,” saying that the issues were “predominantly historical” and the information “taken out of context” as 90 per cent of the account have already been closed.
Some rich and wealthy figures in Thailand might have a lot of explaining to do after a massive data leak revealed that over 1,000 individuals from the country held secretive accounts with Switzerland’s second largest bank Credit Suisse over the past decades, a lender known to be rather “economical” in terms of internal controls and know-your-customer checks. The data was leaked by an anonymous source to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and was subsequently analysed by an investigative team of journalists within the "Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project," participating from international media including The Guardian, Le Monde, New York Times...
Some rich and wealthy figures in Thailand might have a lot of explaining to do after a massive data leak revealed that over 1,000 individuals from the country held secretive accounts with Switzerland’s second largest bank Credit Suisse over the past decades, a lender known to be rather “economical” in terms of internal controls and know-your-customer checks.
The data was leaked by an anonymous source to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and was subsequently analysed by an investigative team of journalists within the “Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project,” participating from international media including The Guardian, Le Monde, New York Times and Miami Herald, under the title “Suisse Secrets.”
On the Thai side, independent non-profit online newspaper Prachatai was part of the team.
Corrupt politicians, war criminals, drug dealers among Credit Suisse clients
The results of the global investigation, published on February 20, showed that the Swiss bank allegedly has accepted corrupt autocrats, suspected war criminals, human traffickers, drug dealers, tax offenders and other criminals from across the world as customers for many years.
Among the countries with the largest number of clients in the data are Thailand alongside Venezuela, Egypt with over 2,000 clients each and Ukraine likewise with over 1,000, all of them benefiting from a country which retains one of the world’s most secretive banking laws.
The journalists found dozens of dubious characters in the data, including an Algerian general accused of torture, the children of a brutal Azerbaijani strongman, a Serbian drug lord known as Misha Banana and the latter’s fellow-countryman Rodoljub Radulović, a Serbian securities fraudster.
There are disgraced executives such as Ronald Li Fook-shiu, founder and former chairman of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, who spent jail time for corruption, and former Siemens Nigeria head Eduard Seidel who was convicted of bribery in 2008 after it surfaced that he oversaw a campaign of industrial-scale graft in the country to secure lucrative contracts.
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos held accounts under fake names
One of the most notorious cases in Credit Suisse’s history involved the corrupt former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda. The couple are estimated to have siphoned as much as $10 billion from the Philippines during the three terms Ferdinand was president, which ended in 1986.
Parts of the money is known to have landed on Credit Suisse accounts which helped the Marcoses to open Swiss bank accounts under the fake names “William Saunders” and “Jane Ryan”. In 1995, a Zurich court ordered Credit Suisse and another bank to return $500 million of stolen funds to the Philippines.
From 2007 onwards, it became known that Credit Suisse was helping thousands of wealthy US citizens evade tax with secret accounts.
“Well known business people” and “high-level civil servants” from Thailand
With regards to Thailand, the report includes the names of some individuals who have been accused of fraud and tax evasion in the past, both expats and Thai nationals, according to Prachatai.
Thai account holders with Credit Suisse include people from a wide variety of backgrounds, the report said. It includes well-known business people from the jewelry, hotel and real estate industry, owners of construction supply companies, trade association leaders, former high-level civil servants, elected and junta-appointed politicians with business backgrounds and certain business people who back politicians.
The “Secret Suisse” revelations are an ongoing project and reporting will be continued as soon as additional information is becoming available, Prachatai wrote.
In a statement, Credit Suisse rejected the allegations “strongly,” saying that the issues were “predominantly historical” and the information “taken out of context” as 90 per cent of the account have already been closed.
