Credit Suisse Stock Halted, To Take Q4 Charge, In Settlement Talks Over US Dollar Payments
Credit Suisse confirms that it is in advanced settlement discussions with the New York County District Attorney’s Office, the United States Department of Justice, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC"). The discussions relate to a previously disclosed investigation into US dollar payments during the period 2002 to April 2007 involving parties that are subject to US economic sanctions. As part of the settlement, Credit Suisse is likely to pay a total of USD 536 million combined.
Credit Suisse has previously disclosed the investigation by US authorities and that it was conducting an internal review into certain US dollar payments involving countries, persons or entities that may be subject to US economic sanctions. In December 2005, Credit Suisse decided to exit the business in question and subsequently proactively undertook an extensive independent investigation into the Zurich-based payment activity and other practices, working closely and constructively with regulators and US authorities. Credit Suisse’s internal review has now been concluded and discussed with these and other government authorities including Credit Suisse’s main regulator, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, FINMA.
Credit Suisse is committed to the highest standards of integrity and regulatory compliance in all its businesses, and takes this matter extremely seriously. Credit Suisse has enhanced its procedures to prevent practices of this type from occurring in the future. In particular, Credit Suisse:
- Terminated its business with all OFAC-sanctioned parties in 2006, including closing its representative office in Tehran;
- Enhanced its global compliance program by, among other things, appointing a global sanctions compliance officer, establishing competency centres and designating individuals responsible for coordinating and monitoring compliance with sanctions programs and enhancing its global policies, procedures and employee training programs, which will continue to be regularly reviewed for effectiveness; and
- Enhanced sanctions filters screening designed to cover incoming and outgoing transactions.
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on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 15:10
#164893
Several things at work here:
1.) Trade embargoes don't work because someone always cheats and these someone's aren't the usual underworld criminals we think of, although, come to think of it, CS and the other banksters are about that level of moral/ethical fiber.
2.) Shucks, you caught us, so please take 10% of what we looted.
3.) This probably won't prevent CS from any current or future FR backstops.
4.) Is this currently affecting/going to affect the dollar carry trade?
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 15:10
#164897
Sounds very routine, unless the fine is huge. Otherwise I can't understand why they would halt the issue
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:00
#164967
Usually the insiders at the exchange sell short in advance of the annoucement, halt trading, then, the specialist opens the stock lower and covers with the sell orders coming in.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 17:46
#165080
This is mostly about the Iran money laundering operation, I suspect. Lloyd's was big into it too.
The punishment SHOULD BE the harshest......losing an ability to do business in the U.S. ......and mega fines. They were clearly into it bigtime.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 20:18
#165315
You think that is going to be a big punishment?
Losing the ability to do business in the US?
With your economy headed into the dumper on a fast train?
Right.
Probably be a good move pretty soon to get out anyway.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 15:30
#164927
RKH prints 4 month low- Let the "Airing of Grievances" begin
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 15:54
#164962
just make sure the back door fully shuts after the bustout is done. we don't want the dons to catch their death during the sitdowns from any lingering (over)drafts.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 15:33
#164936
David Kelly - JP Morgan - on Bloomberg "economic recovery on verge of becoming an expansion"
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:24
#164990
thanks david...i'm delighted to hear that the housing problem is all fixed now. as well as consumer demand. as well as a reversal of credit contraction (even the fed shows it has contracted enormously). i'm particularly delighted that our financial system is all better now. i must have missed the memo on commercial real estate: can you forward a copy to me David? did jpm unwind all those nasty little derivatives? that would surely eliminate global armageddon risk and would help with an expansion.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 15:44
#164947
With UBS out, and CS to follow, how the hell will the ultra upper middle class continue not paying their taxes?
Ping!
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 15:53
#164958
With UBS out, and CS to follow, how the hell will the ultra upper middle class continue not paying their taxes?
Get a job with the Federal Government!
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:20
#164988
specifically the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:21
#164986
Once again, witness the Feds bitch-slapping the Swiss. Why should a Swiss bank (Switzerland being a neutral country) have to comply with a US embargo? Why should UBS be responsible for wealthy US citizens setting up trusts to avoid criminally high US tax rates? Because, for those of you who haven't figured it out yet, the US federal government is a criminal organization! Hey y'all, Geitner is a tax evader as is practically every Democrat in government. In the world of vampire squids, might makes right, and only little people pay taxes.
Here is what you need to watch: Oswald Grübel (Ossie) was running CS during this time period. Since taking over UBS, Grubel has instituted a policy of 100% reputation protection for UBS. The UBS brand must remain squeaky clean. Current policy is that any UBS employee having anything to do with anything that could possibly tarnish UBS's reputation is out on his ear.
Hey Ossie, it's time for you to kick your own sorry ass out of the company!
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:25
#164991
"criminally high tax rates"
Hi. Some of us here were alive when tax rates were astronomically higher in the United States and this country was doing just fine. You are welcome to live in your libertarian, low tax environment in Antarctica.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:33
#164997
Yes we can have even higher taxes. Yes we can have even more taxes. Yes we can have even more government. Yes we can have even more freeloaders and parasites demanding outrageous pensions and health insurance plans from the state.
You Democrat/Socialists just can't figure it out. Why don't you just fucking tax yourselves and leave the rest of us alone? Anyone who can make it on their own knows the reason why: because you can't! So you parasites want to suck our blood while telling us that we are the greedy ones. Up yours asshole.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 17:51
#165087
People paid into their pensions. And in any case those were benefits of employment. Or are you talking about gov pensions? Actually I don't see a problem with people being supported in retirement, and retirement funds are a good source of nonvolatile investment money.
What is a "freeloader" exactly? I'm not really getting an image there. Help me out.
And here's an idea; if you don't pay taxes, nobody will come to your house and put your the fire. Or patrol your street. Or educate your kids (which you don't have because you don't have time to homeschool them). I mean, there's a reason for taxation, you know?
cougar
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 18:00
#165099
That's a real potpourri, cougar.
I am of course talking about government employee PAYGO pensions. If income taxes were reasonable, or better yet non-existant, then there would be no need for tax-advantaged 401k's. This is another example of a very poor government solution to a government created problem.
A freeloader is someone who doesn't pull his own weight. Alles Klar?
My son died in a house fire due partially to the negligence of the fire department. Like all good government departments, their main concern is covering for each other. Don't start with fire departments with me. Before he died, he was mugged and robbed twice by Albanian gangs. Don't start with police departments with me.
The real issue is what is a reasonable level of taxation? 10% sounds reasonable to me. Anything about 25% distorts the market and is criminal.
on Wed, 12/16/2009 - 09:00
#165777
Completely agree, though I would have used other adjectives.
Taxes are supposed to be two things, and two things only:
1) Paying for the services you consume
2) Paying a "social justice" toll due to certain injustices that exist
I definitely do no question the need to pay for services consumed; in fact I mostly do it anyways, because government services are shoddy and I can afford better standards (eg. I am double paying). Now, I'm not even against paying a "social justice" transfer. Some people have had a very unhappy underpriviliged upbrinings or even have congenital defects that affect their ability to earn income. I think the question is really what would be a fair "social justice" transfer payment? Maybe 10%? Taxes should be 25-30% maximum, but that should include EVERYTHING (no hidden VAT charges, land taxes, car ownership taxes, INFLATION, etc)
Excessive taxation is actually immoral. It is nothing more than stealing by the populace. You need to have VERY strong arguements for making people pay for things they don't consume (or equivalently paying for more than their share of services consumed)
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:41
#165003
Psssst. Your ignorance of economic history is showing.
When tax rates were that high, 1) the value of the US currency hadn't lost 95% of its purchasing power, and pushed Juan the lawn boy into the 35%-overall bracket (income, sales, property, fees, licenses, etc., etc., etc. 2) libertarian, low-tax environments were what made the US economy able to afford (for awhile) those confiscatory tax rates 3) if you want high taxes, I will be glad to accommodate you. Just send 50% of your income to me, here, at "Screw The People, Box 666, Mephistopolis, Hell".
For a more pithy reply to your inane idiocy, see comment directly above.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:49
#165015
Inane idiocy? From the mouths of Southern-fried Nascar babes....
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 17:01
#165030
Tool.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 20:24
#165325
Um... check out the loopholes available at that time in history dumbass. Yes, the rate was very high, but nobody paid it because it was riddled with very well-know loopholes.
It was a show put on by the politicians that only the dumbest would buy. Sorry, I guess that would make you dumb.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 21:25
#165396
Ugh... what a joke.
That said, to me though the amount of the taxes is only part of the problem. Equally important is what is done with them.
Cash for clunkers? Lifetime disability payments for some schmuck that doesn't feel like working anymore? Subsidized employment costs for walmart? Too high wages for Government bums that haven't seen a hard days work in their life?
Please. You must earn way too much money if you're happy paying more taxes for that sort of bullshit.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:24
#164989
We marvel at the collective's common ordinary non-market (systematic or specific) risk management techniques.
Profoundly disturbilng. To do or not to do in one's own pants, that is the question.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:51
#165018
The very high tax rate period in the US coincided with levels of very low growth, very low innovation (little venture capital) and high unemployment except during several wars. You want to repeat that?
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 17:00
#165028
In Switzerland, the majority of income taxes collected goes to the Canton and the Community, not to the Federal Government. Tax rates vary enormously depending on which Canton and Comminity one lives in, with low tax Cantons having tax rates 25% as high as high tax rate Cantons.
Consequently, the clever, industrious and wealthy flee the high tax Cantons for the low. The loser, high tax Cantons end up with the parasites and socialists. This is the beauty of tax competition, and it would be possible in the US too if all the states sceded an then formed a confederacy.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 17:29
#165058
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly."
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 23:22
#165497
You don't have to be a MENSA to move from Sacramento to Reno once you retire. The canton-hopping is happening here and will continue. Businesses will move to "right-to-work" states or states with weak or no unionized labor. High net worth and high earners will move to NV, WA, TX and like. When Cali state tax gets to 15% on top of very high Fed taxes, people will begin to play the Canton Hop.
All the talk of raising taxes.... how about cutting some spending! And impeaching the liar in the White House.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 17:06
#165034
Timing is interesting.
A cynic might suggest this will be used as excuse over next few weeks when explaining to staff why bonuses are lower than expected - and lower than peers'.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 17:54
#165091
..." if all the states sceded an then formed a confederacy."
As i recall y'all tried that once before. How'd that work out? I'm sure you've heard that saying about those who don't learn from history being condemned to repeat it.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 18:03
#165105
Although both of them have completely sodomized the constitution, of one thing I am sure: Barack Obama is no Abraham Lincoln!
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 18:12
#165120
US war mongering criminality knows no bounds as evidenced by the 25 years of seizure of Iranian assets and the denial of their UN charter declared rights of access to global trade and the US's abuse of it's global reserve currency and use of that status to impose defacto hegemony. While US citizens can walk down the street pretending the US's blockade on Japan wasn't the "make my day" challenge to the Japanese Empire before WWII the normality of supply denial induced confrontational warfare will continue. Right now anglo-franco alliance is backing a minority group of Iranian elkitists from the nortern suburbs of Tehran to try to steal power from the Iranian majority in the style of Rockefeller's CFR & Trilateral commissions theft of the US red & blue political proccess. The only strategic difference between Iran and Japan of old is that their empire has no hope in an all out confrontation with both the EU and US liberal fascists and they are a global meltdown away from having any possibility of an expansionist agenda. The Iranian's real hope is that a resurgent conservative youth in the US that chooses the Jeffersonian legacy at the same time as Japan walks away from the Trilateral commission to embrace Asia once more with something far more accommodating than an imperialist agenda.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 19:49
#165277
I thought Credit Suisse was Swiss... not a bitch of the US Govt.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 20:54
#165363
There is two types of bitches in this world , that is GOLD Bitches and $ Bitches.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 21:12
#165386
it must have been an "airing of the dirty laundry" day.