Credit Suisse: From Ferdinand Marcos to
“Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand” Micah 2:1
From Ferdinand Marcos To Russian Oligarchs, Troubled Credit Suisse Is A Repeat Offender
Forbes by Mayra Rodriguez Valladares ~ March 16, 2023
What happens when you repeatedly let cocaine dealers, crooks, and kleptocrats use your bank? The Swiss National Bank approves you for a loan up to 50 billion francs ($54 billion). Credit Suisse demonstrated yet again the advantage of being a global systemically important bank. Central banks, bank regulators and treasuries rescue big banks for fear of the havoc that Too Big To Fail banks can cause around the globe.
A Decades-Long History Of Trouble
Tuesday, Credit Suisse announced significant weaknesses in its financial reporting in 2021 and 2022. This is hardly the first time that Credit Suisse has shown its significant operational risk exposure, that is, problems with its employees, processes, and technology. In their February 2022 article for The Guardian, Crooks, Kleptocrats, and Crises, Kalyeena Makortoff and David Pegg walked us down an over two-decade memory lane of recidivist behavior at Credit Suisse.
- 1986: Helping Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos with their absconded funds
- 1999: “Shredding Party”– Japanese authorities fined Credit Suisse for destroying evidence in an investigation
- 2000: Banking for a Nigerian dictator
- 2004: Money laundering for a Japanese crime gang
- 2009: Fined for breaching US sanctions against Iran and Sudan between 1995 -2007
- 2011: Tax evasion probes of 1,100 Germans holding accounts at Credit Suisse
- 2012: Bankers fraudulently overstated price of mortgage-backed securities based on subprime loans
- 2014: Helped Americans evade taxes
- 2016: Helped Italians evade taxes
- 2016: Anti-money laundering fine in the US
- 2017: Anti-money laundering fine for the bank’s role in 1Malaysia Development Berhad
- 2017: European tax evasion
- 2018: Weak controls linked to dealings with oil companies Petrobras, PDVSA and FIFA
- 2018: Fraud involving Georgian prime minister
- 2018: Jobs for business scandal in Hong Kong and China
- 2019: Corporate espionage
- 2020: Opened banking accounts for Bulgarian cocaine traffickers
- 2021: Archegos collapse
- 2021: Greensill Capital scandal in the UK
- 2021: Mozambique tuna-bond scandal
- 2022: Under investigation for possible ties to Russian oligarchs
- 2023: Material weaknesses in financial reporting
Market Signals a Warning About Credit Suisse’s Problems
The market’s displeasure with Credit Suisse has been particularly evident since 2021. Since its recent peak of $14.45 on February 26, 2021, the stock has declined by more than 85% to $2.16 on the close on March 15.
“Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand” Micah 2:1
Joel Huan
The Mystery of Ephraim 