The End of the Swiss Bank Account as We Know It

In federal court Monday in Alexandria, Va., Credit Suisse pled guilty to conspiring to aid tax evasion and agreed to pay $2.6 billion in fines, approximately $1.8 billion of which will go to the Department of Justice and $715 million to the office of New York State’s top financial regulator, Benjamin Lawsky. As Attorney General Eric Holder pointed out at a press conference, Credit Suisse is the largest financial company to plead guilty in 20 years. ”This case shows that no financial institution, no matter its size or global reach, is above the law,” Holder said. “A company’s profitability or market share can never and will never be used as a shield from prosecution or penalty. And this action should put that misguided notion definitively to rest.”

The case is unlikely to satisfy the government’s critics who have complained that prosecutors have been too hesitant to punish banks for breaking the law. What it likely will do, however, is mark the end of the Swiss bank account as American tax shelter.