{"id":72291,"date":"2026-05-26T16:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/72291\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:46:08","slug":"trump-admin-urged-to-probe-ubs-for-its-nazi-linked-accounts-historic-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/72291\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump admin urged to probe UBS for its Nazi-linked accounts: ‘Historic shame’"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Trump administration is being urged to investigate Swiss bank UBS for \u201cobstructing\u201d congressional efforts to uncover its \u201cdeep\u201d ties to the Nazi regime<\/a> through accounts that looted Jewish assets and helped SS officers flee to Argentina following the Second World War.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) penned a letter last Tuesday to a State Department official tasked with combating antisemitism, calling the bank\u2019s conduct \u201ca historic shame\u201d and requesting assistance in furthering his own investigation of UBS\u2019s alleged obstruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs my investigation proceeds, it would be helpful to know about the further steps your office plans to take to help make the Jewish people whole from the theft and looting of their finances and art by the Nazis,\u201d the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman told Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.<\/p>\n

The now-defunct bank Credit Suisse was acquired by UBS in 2023. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Grassley\u2019s May 19 missive copied Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as well.<\/p>\n

UBS was able to obtain final approval<\/a> in March for a national charter from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency during probes into its Nazi-linked accounts \u2014 but sources told The Post that Treasury Department officials have since been briefed on UBS\u2019s failure to engage in Grassley\u2019s bipartisan inquiry.<\/p>\n

The Iowa Republican noted in his letter that UBS\u2019s national bank charter imposes a \u201cheightened responsibility\u201d and its \u201ccurrent conduct is a historic shame, especially in light of its once cooperative attitude\u201d toward his investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince April of 2023, I have led a bipartisan investigation into the unresolved issue of Swiss banks, specifically Credit Suisse, which has since been purchased by UBS, and undisclosed Nazi-linked accounts, the theft of money, gold, the looting of art and related issues,\u201d Grassley told Kaploun.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn these and related issues, the investigations of the 1990s didn\u2019t bring full justice to the Jewish people and the victims of the Holocaust,\u201d he told the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote a letter last Tuesday to a State Department official tasked with combating antisemitism, calling the Swiss bank\u2019s conduct \u201ca historic shame.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cUBS, should its conduct remain unchanged, will apparently be able to make money off the backs of the U.S. taxpayers while thumbing its nose at the U.S. Congress, the American people, victims of the Holocaust, and history itself,\u201d Grassley\u2019s letter noted.<\/p>\n

In 1999, Credit Suisse reached a $1.25 billion settlement with Holocaust survivors and their families over the forced transfer of Jewish assets to Nazi-affiliated accounts.<\/p>\n

But subsequent reports and investigations have indicated that not all of the banks\u2019 ties to Adolf Hitler\u2019s regime were uncovered.<\/p>\n

The independent monitor, Neil Barofsky, revealed some findings from the probe in February that showed 890 accounts with potential ties to dictator Adolf Hitler\u2019s war efforts. ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p>\n

In 2020, the Simon Wiesenthal Center found\u00a0as many as 12,000 Nazis<\/a>\u00a0who had escaped to Argentina were linked to accounts at a Credit Suisse predecessor.<\/p>\n

An independent investigator was then tasked by the bank the following year with looking into Nazi-linked accounts. In 2023, with that investigation still ongoing, UBS acquired Credit Suisse for $3 billion.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0independent monitor<\/a>, Neil Barofsky,\u00a0revealed some findings from the\u00a0probe<\/a>\u00a0in February that showed 890 accounts with potential ties to Hitler\u2019s war efforts.<\/p>\n

But in April, he revealed to a Senate committee <\/a>in written testimony that roughly 23,000 pages of documents about Third Reich finances are still being \u201credacted or withheld\u201d by UBS amid his investigation. In a subsequent letter to Grassley, the ombudsman cited as many as 27,400 missing pages.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, UBS has not provided my team with a privilege log identifying the bases for these
redactions and withholdings, nor has it committed to a date by which such a log will be produced,\u201d Barofsky wrote in the May 20 letter.<\/p>\n

The ombudsman also claimed UBS had \u201cmade false and misleading statements\u201d about 127 accounts previously identified by Barofsky and his team of investigators as having held Jewish assets that were forcibly transferred from Credit Suisse to Nazi-affiliated German bank clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI now know that the Bank had identified, collected, and reviewed these cards months earlier,\u201d Barofsky wrote to Grassley, citing 113 accounts later flagged by UBS to his team.<\/p>\n

Barofsky has also claimed in the past that his investigative team was allegedly blocked from pursuing \u201ccredible leads\u201d into the Swiss bank\u2019s links to the SS and the \u201cratlines\u201d that helped the Nazis flee to Latin America after World War II.<\/p>\n

A 1933 photo shows German leaders (from left) Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler and Rudolph Hess receiving cheers and Nazi salutes from their followers in Berlin. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

In a February public hearing, Barofksy said he was fired between 2022 and 2023 during his probe for refusing to \u201csuppress the truth<\/a>\u201d about the Nazi ties to UBS\u2019s predecessor banks.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in the same hearing of past probes into Swiss banks: \u201cWhat was largely left untouched were Nazi-linked accounts, shell corporations and financial networks that helped Nazis safeguard their criminal proceeds and escape justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

UBS reaffirmed its authority to withhold privileged records in written testimony submitted on May 21, announcing that its \u201conce excellent relationship\u201d with Barofsky had deteriorated due to the bank\u2019s \u201cdesire to bring its six-year investigation to an orderly and appropriate close\u201d by the end of this calendar year.<\/p>\n

The Swiss bank further noted that it had provided the ombudsman with access to roughly 16.5 million pages of documents, withholding \u201cless than 0.1%\u201d of its total records to protect attorney-client privilege related to the class-action settlement agreement with Holocaust victims in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cNotably, we are not withholding documents from prior to the 1990s, even if they were included in the 1990s class action litigation files,\u201d UBS also said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cFor example, if World War II-era documents are attached to a privileged document, we are not withholding those historical documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

UBS, which admitted to spending more than $250 million on a voluntary review of past Nazi accounts since 2021, also cited potential \u201cthreats of litigation\u201d from the Simon Wiesenthal Center that could reopen the 1999 settlement as its reason for withholding privileged documents.<\/p>\n

Reps for the Treasury and State departments did not respond to requests for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The Trump administration is being urged to investigate Swiss bank UBS for \u201cobstructing\u201d congressional efforts to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[114,27714,29449,5066,7178,27001,69,41,17,223,1048],"class_list":["post-72291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-business","tag-chuck-grassley","tag-congress","tag-exclusive","tag-investigations","tag-nazis","tag-politics","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland","tag-ubs","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116641895951081680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}