FILE PHOTO: A Credit Suisse sign is seen on the exterior of their Americas headquarters in the Manhattan borough of New York City, September 1, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
October 19, 2021
(Reuters) -Credit Suisse Group AG has agreed to pay nearly $475 million to American and British authorities to resolve charges in connection with Mozambican bond offerings, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday.
The charges centered on the Zurich-based bank’s role in a $2 billion scandal involving government-guaranteed loans. The SEC said Credit Suisse fraudulently misled investors and violated U.S. bribery laws in a scheme involving two bond offerings and a syndicated loan that raised funds on behalf of state-owned entities in Mozambique.
The resolution is the latest development in the multi-year scandal for the bank. Mozambique is also suing Credit Suisse and shipbuilder Privinvest in London’s High Court over $2 billion in government-guaranteed loans raised in 2013 and 2014, a hefty chunk of which went missing.
A London-based subsidiary of Russian bank VTB also agreed to pay more than $6 million to settle SEC charges.
Separately on Tuesday, Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA said it is concluding its enforcement proceedings against Credit Suisse, saying the bank seriously violated the organizational requirements and the U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) reporting obligations in connection with loans it made to state-owned companies in Mozambique in 2013.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice in Washington, Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru and John Revill in Zurich; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Will Dunham)
Source: One America News Network
