the second-largest Swiss bank after UBS, said Tuesday that it expected to pay a fine of $536 million to settle charges with the federal government and state authorities in New York that it violated sanctions against doing business with Iran and other countries.
In October, Robert M. Morgenthau, the district attorney for Manhattan, announced that his office, the Justice Department and the Federal Reserve were investigating a large international “mainstream bank” for allowing illicit financial transactions with Iran, which has long been subject to sanctions by Washington. At the time, Mr. Morgenthau did not identify the institution.
But investigators found that Credit Suisse’s employees had violated both state and federal laws by falsifying outgoing dollar payment messages that involved Iran. The bank’s employees removed references to Iran or its banks, a practice called stripping.As a result, investigators say, Iranian banks like Bank Saderat and Bank Melli were able to use Credit Suisse to send hundreds of millions of dollars through New York banks unimpede… >>>
