Ex-President Sarkissian Exposed in ‘Suisse Secrets’ Investigation

“These recent reports are being used to smear His Majesty and Jordan and distort the truth,” the palace said in a statement, adding that the figures were overblown because the amounts in the accounts had been counted multiple times.

The leak points to a widespread failure of due diligence by Credit Suisse in evaluating and rejecting dubious clients and those handling illegal funds.

SZ reported that fraudsters could have opened accounts or kept accounts even “if the bank could have known long ago that they were dealing with criminals.”

Reporters spoke to several former employees of the bank, who described a “highly toxic corporate culture that incentivized taking on risk to maximize profits — and bonuses,” OCCRP wrote on its website.

Former employees said this led to a culture of two sets of rules for two sets of clients: the rich and the ultra-rich.

The whistleblower, whose name remains unknown to the media partners, described Swiss banking secrecy as “immoral.”

“The pretense of protecting financial privacy is just a fig leaf to cover up the shameful role of Swiss banks as collaborators with tax evaders,” the whistleblower said.

Switzerland has long been one of the world’s most opaque financial centers. But the country has sought in recent years to shed its image as a haven for tax evasion, money laundering and the embezzlement of government funds.

Swiss banks now exchange information about account holders with a number of countries, but not some of the poorest and most corrupt nations.

The investigation found that a large number of the customers in the Suisse Secrets data come from Venezuela, Egypt, Ukraine and Tajikistan.

Last month, the bank lost its chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio after he twice broke COVID-19 rules.