Hundreds of Swiss Bank Accounts Likely Linked to Nazis Found

UBS bank advertisement on a building in Zurich. Photo: Stefan Wermuth / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Hundreds of bank accounts that could be linked to Nazis were discovered during an independent investigation into Credit Suisse archives, writes The Wall Street Journal. This was one of the largest Swiss banks of the 20th century, now part of the UBS group. The audit is being conducted by prosecutor Neil Barofsky, a former US federal prosecutor, who was tasked with examining the bank's archives pertaining to the World War II period.

According to the investigation's author, the discovered materials indicate a significantly closer and more systemic connection between Credit Suisse and the Nazi regime than previously admitted. In particular, this refers to bank accounts belonging to SS agents.

These findings, as WSJ notes, were publicly announced during hearings in the US Senate Judiciary Committee. Barofsky spoke alongside representatives from UBS and a rabbi from the Simon Wiesenthal Center — a Jewish human rights organization that initiated an investigation into Credit Suisse's potential ties to the Nazis back in 2020.

In total, according to the investigation, about 890 accounts potentially linked to Nazis were discovered. As the author of the material notes, Barofsky found previously unknown instances where Credit Suisse carried out forced transfers of Jewish clients' assets to banks affiliated with the Nazi regime. Additionally, there were signs that the bank helped Nazi officials fleeing after the war to settle in Argentina.

For decades after World War II, Swiss banks, as WSJ writes, denied families of Holocaust victims access to information, claiming they had no records of their relatives' accounts and property.

The situation only changed in the late 1990s, when, after lengthy diplomatic and legal disputes, UBS and Credit Suisse reached an agreement with Jewish organizations. Under this agreement, nearly $1.3 billion was paid. The agreement provided for compensation to account holders, forced laborers, and other victims, and was intended to finally close the question of the role of Swiss banks during the war years.

An Inconvenient Legacy

As WSJ writes, in recent years, UBS allowed Barofsky's team to work with Credit Suisse archives, which led to the discovery of accounts that were not disclosed before the 1990s agreement. However, now, as WSJ writes, UBS categorically refuses to disclose internal legal correspondence from that time. The bank demands guarantees that no new cases will be brought against it based on the discovered facts and that the agreement from the late 1990s will not be reconsidered.

This bank's secrecy is not limited to legal aspects — it also concerns the archival holdings themselves. As the author of the material notes, additional distrust is caused by UBS's categorical refusal to open its own wartime archives, which are stored separately from Credit Suisse documents.

This caution has strong grounds. As WSJ writes, in the 1990s, UBS admitted to destroying records that could have been relevant to the investigation. This scandal gained notoriety at the time only thanks to a night watchman who witnessed the destruction process and saved some documents.

The publication notes that Credit Suisse collapsed in March 2023 after a series of scandals and financial problems, after which UBS rescued it with the support of the Swiss government. Both banks were the largest in the country and absorbed many smaller financial institutions after the war.

Last week, UBS appealed to a US federal court asking to prohibit the Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish organizations involved in the 1990s agreement from questioning its actions. The bank also demands a ban on any new lawsuits, payments, and "public disputes" surrounding the role of Swiss banks during the war years.

Attorneys for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as WSJ writes, responded that such demands violate the right to freedom of speech and impede the organization's mission — to research and make public all aspects of the Nazi regime's antisemitic policies before, during, and after World War II.

A resolution in this dispute is expected to be reached at a court hearing scheduled for March 12.

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