Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #suissesecrets

NEW: The #SuisseSecrets leak shows how powerful African political figures shared accounts at Credit Suisse worth many millions with executives at a Swiss investment fund at the heart of a massive bribery scandal. 1/
occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

Addax Petroleum burst from obscurity in the late 1990s to take Nigeria’s oil industry by storm, landing one of the most lucrative deals the country had ever seen. 2/

Years later, French court proceedings revealed the firm had secured the contracts by bribing the Nigerian oil minister to the tune of US$5 million. 3/

@guardian

NEW: OCCRP and the @guardian uncover how the Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov places his assets beyond the reach of sanctions through secretive offshore jurisdictions, trusts, and Swiss bank accounts. #RussianAssetTracker 1/
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Pulling from leaked data sets including #SuisseSecrets, #PanamaPapers, and #FinCenFiles, reporters pieced together a partial picture of how Usmanov has obscured his holdings —including by making his sister, a Tashkent gynecologist, one of the major beneficiaries. 2/

Saodat Narzieva is listed as the beneficial owner of 27 accounts at Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse.

One of these accounts held a max balance of over $2.1 billion. Others held max balances in the hundreds of millions. 3/

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NEW: Scandal-hit banker Álvaro Sobrinho is linked to a scheme to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from a social housing project in Angola.

Around the same time Sobrinho set up three Credit Suisse accounts. #SuisseSecrets
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Sobrinho gained notoriety in 2014 when Banco Espirito Santo Angola, where he was CEO, was dismantled with billions in debts.

This story reveals BESA’s ties to a scheme that allegedly embezzled from a project to build 1M affordable homes in Angola. 2/ cdn.occrp.org/projects/suiss…

Documents obtained by OCCRP show at least eleven of Sobrinho’s accounts at Credit Suisse are now being investigated by Portuguese prosecutors over the scandal.

One of these held at least 78 million Swiss francs, and three were set up at the time of the alleged scam. 3/

NEW: Using records from both the #SuisseSecrets and #PandoraPapers leak, OCCRP exposes the hidden ties between a top Uzbek official and one of the country’s wealthiest, most secretive oligarchs. 1/ occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

Leaked banking data from inside Credit Suisse shows how Payzullajon Mirzaev, co-founder of industrial conglomerate Orient Group, had control over an account at the scandal-ridden Swiss lender that belonged to a previously unknown Uzbek woman, Rana Ramatova. 2/

Our reporting reveals that Ramatova, whose name has never emerged in public, is in fact the wife of Uzbekistan’s first deputy prime minister, Achilbay Ramatov. 3/

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NEW: Several wealthy Pakistanis stashed as much as $200 million in secret Credit Suisse accounts while they were under scrutiny from tax officials or corruption investigators. #SuisseSecrets
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In 2000, Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) launched an anti-corruption drive that targeted 200 military officers, politicians, and business people.

10 ppl from that list had Credit Suisse accounts.

One of the Pakistanis in the leak is former Lt. Gen. Zahid Ali Akbar Khan, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to having unexplained assets & paid a $2M fine.

But what NAB didn't know — until now — is that he had 15.5m Swiss francs in his Credit Suisse account. cdn.occrp.org/projects/suiss…

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When Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe faced electoral defeat in 2008, investors including Credit Suisse backed a deal that paid for a wave of violence that snuffed out the opposition.

🇨🇭 A #SuisseSecrets thread 🇿🇼
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2) Days after Mugabe lost the first round of elections in 2008, his party received a surprise $100m that was reportedly used to fund a campaign of terror against voters of the opposition.

The money came from the sale of a platinum mine. Here’s how Credit Suisse was involved 👇

3) Bank Accounts 🏦

Mugabe’s gov't seized the platinum mine and gave the rights to a long-time friend of the regime, Muller Conrad “Billy” Rautenbach.

Leaked data shows that Rautenbach opened two Credit Suisse accounts right before the mine was sold.
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THREAD: Omar Suleiman, the one-time head of Egypt’s intelligence agency, was personally linked to torture and political repression.

Yet leaked data shows his family was able to keep millions at Credit Suisse. Here’s what we found 👇 #SuisseSecrets 🇪🇬
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2) When U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the UN he had evidence of Iraq training Al-Qaeda in chemical weaponry, the source he relied on was a victim of Suleiman’s intelligence regime: Ibn Sheikh Al-Libi.

3) After his capture in Pakistan, Al-Libi was rendered by the CIA to Egypt in 2003, where he was tortured.

After being squashed inside a tiny box, Al-Libi would later say he told the Egyptians "what they wanted to hear."

Frederik Obermaier

@f_obermaier

@SZ

Last Sunday, we @SZ @OCCRP published the #SuisseSecrets about the dubious customers & the lack of due diligence at Credit Suisse. The bank responded with a press statement - as it can be misleading, but is nevertheless picked up by many journalists, it is time for some context👇

The bank stated "The matters presented are predominantly historical, in some cases dating back as far as the 1940s". Fact is: more than two-thirds of the #SuisseSecret-accounts were opened since 2000 & several customers confirmed that their accounts are still open in 2022 (!)

The bank stated "90% of the reviewed accounts are today closed or were in the process of closure". But: the #SuisseSecrets do contain info on more than 18000 accounts and we only asked the bank for dozens of them. "90%" is therefore a veeeery small number.

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THREAD: This is Ghaleb Al-Qamish, ex-leader of Yemen’s intelligence agency and a key US ally.

As he carried out USA interests — including participating in the extraordinary rendition program — we show that Qamish had a Credit Suisse account that swelled in value. #SuisseSecrets

2) Qamish’s entanglement with US foreign policy began in 1980, when he allegedly helped recruit jihadists to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.

In 2000, President Ali Abdullah Saleh tasked Qamish with helping the CIA identify the suspects behind the bombing of the USS Cole.

3) The year before he helped the Americans on the Cole attack, leaked data shows a Credit Suisse account was opened in his name.

By 2006, the account held almost five million Swiss francs. cdn.occrp.org/projects/suiss…

NEW: Two brothers currently on trial for their role in a massive Kenyan corruption scheme held millions in a secret account at Credit Suisse, which remained active long after authorities first declared them wanted over the scandal. #SuisseSecrets 1/ occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

The so-called Anglo Leasing affair, which saw $234 million siphoned from Kenyan state coffers, first broke in 2005, after a government officer blew the whistle on the funds having been paid to phantom companies for inflated contracts. 2/

Authorities first declared Deepak and Rashmi Kamani wanted in 2006, and in 2015 they were placed on trial for their alleged role in the scandal. 3/

OCCRP reveals how figures accused of corruption tied to a Libyan development fund held accounts worth tens of millions of dollars at Credit Suisse. #SuisseSecrets 1/
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Investigations into Libya’s Organization for Development of Administrative Centers have alleged that billions of dollars were siphoned from state coffers through the fund. 2/

Now, leaked banking data from Credit Suisse reveals that four figures allegedly involved in embezzlement and graft at the fund were also clients of the bank. 3/

@KRIKrs

#SuisseSecrets: OCCRP and our Serbian partner @KRIKrs show how Credit Suisse maintained accounts belonging to alleged drug smuggler Rodoljub Radulović. 1/ occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

Radulović is a Serbian business partner of Montenegrin drug baron Darko Šarić. On the run since 2012, Radulović has been charged in the same case that saw Šarić found guilty of smuggling almost 6 tons of cocaine into Europe from South America. 2/
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One of the accounts Radulović held at Credit Suisse was allegedly used to launder the proceeds of his drug-trafficking operations. 3/

#SuisseSecrets: OCCRP reveals how the sons of an Azeri despot received millions from shell companies tied to two massive money laundering systems at multiple foreign banks, including Credit Suisse. 1/ occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

Seymur and Rza Talibov — sons of Vasif Talibov, ruler of the autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan — received multiple suspicious transfers to their Credit Suisse accounts between 2007 and 2012. 2/

The wire transfers came from shell firms that were not only part of the #AzerbaijaniLaundromat and #TroikaLaundromat — massive money laundering schemes uncovered by OCCRP — but also figured in a human trafficking investigation in Bosnia. 3/

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NEW: Business tycoon, alleged intelligence frontman, close Mubarak ally — Hussein Salem was many things throughout his scandal-ridden career. At Credit Suisse, he was a client. #SuisseSecrets 1/ occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

OCCRP and partners uncovered a dozen accounts held by Salem at Switzerland’s second-largest lender, the majority of which were opened after he was publicly linked to a major U.S. fraud case. 2/

One of Salem’s accounts was allegedly used to pay kickbacks linked to a company at the heart of one of Germany’s largest fraud scandals, and several were not closed until after the 2011 Egyptian uprising. 3/

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@lemondefr

NEW: A prominent Taiwanese politician had a Credit Suisse account that could provide critical information on a corrupt $2.5b deal for naval ships.

A #SuisseSecrets story from OCCRP and @lemondefr [Thread]👇
occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

Background on the Corruption Case: The “Lafayette” scandal started when Taiwan bought six navy frigates from a French state-backed defense firm three decades ago for $2.5b.

Some $520m in kickbacks are believed to have been paid out to officials in Taiwan, France, and China. 2/

Last year, Switzerland agreed to return $266m in “illegal commissions” on the deal that were stashed in Swiss bank accounts.

But authorities say they were unaware of a Swiss account exposed in today’s investigation. 3/

NEW: Credit Suisse maintained a bank account for the wife of a Kyrgyz public official even after he fled the country and was charged with abusing his position to illegally grant mining licenses. #SuisseSecrets 1/ occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

Natalia Kurmanlieva, the now-former spouse of Kapar Kurmanliev, held an account at the lender. Its balance reached 1.4 million Swiss francs. She appears to have no independent source of income, while he had a modest gov’t salary. 2/

Kurmanliev was convicted in absentia by a Kyrgyz court in 2014. But it wasn’t the first time he’d run into trouble -- he was accused of embezzling state property in 2002, six years before his wife opened her account. 3/

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#SuisseSecrets: Leaked records show how Credit Suisse played a role as a fugitive family siphoned over $100m from one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural companies, which affected investors throughout Europe. [Thread] 👇
occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

2) The collapse of Mriya Agro Holding shook investors throughout Europe, including in Germany where the gov’t bailed out Deutsche Bank and two other firms affected by the fallout.

But its owners, the Guta family, walked away with a fortune. cdn.occrp.org/projects/suiss…

3) The Gutas are wanted in Ukraine for using Mriya Agro Holdings to buy shares — at wildly inflated prices — in Cypriot shell companies through BVI firms, which they also owned.

Our investigation reveals that Credit Suisse played a role in this scam.

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NEW: OCCRP and @IrpiMedia reveal how a suspected money launderer for the ‘Ndrangheta stashed a small fortune in secret accounts at Credit Suisse. #SuisseSecrets 1/
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Antonio Velardo, an Italian real estate developer, was suspected of laundering money for the ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s largest mafia-type organization, through a Calabrian seaside apartment complex. 2/

Investors lost millions when authorities seized the ‘Jewel of the Sea’ development mid-way through construction in 2013. Both Velardo and his business partner, a convicted IRA bomber, were later cleared of related charges. 3/

NEW: In the years before the Arab Spring, Credit Suisse allowed ruling elites, including the sons of Hosni Mubarak, to maintain bank accounts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Another #SuisseSecrets Thread 👇occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…

2) Swiss authorities reported a surge in "suspicious transactions" from Arab countries in 2011, which they partly attributed to the Arab Spring.

Suisse Secrets gives new insight into the funds held by Arab elites at one Swiss bank.

3) Reporters found that the sons of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have held at least six accounts at Credit Suisse between them, one with a maximum balance worth over 277 million Swiss francs — about $197.5 million at the time.
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