Ex-Credit Suisse client pleads guilty to hiding $90M from US

A former Credit Suisse Group AG client pleaded guilty to a tax evasion conspiracy in which she and family members concealed $90 million from the Internal Revenue Service through undeclared accounts in Switzerland, Israel, Andorra and Panama. 

Gilda Rosenberg, a Florida businesswoman, admitted Monday in Miami federal court that she conspired to defraud the U.S., evade taxes and fail to file foreign bank account reports, also known as FBARs. Her family held about 15 accounts at Credit Suisse — now owned by UBS Group AG — between 1979 and 2013, according to a 27-page statement of facts in the case. 

The plea comes after the administration of former President Joe Biden tried to reach a settlement with UBS over whether Credit Suisse violated a 2014 plea deal related to the bank's efforts to help clients hide assets from the IRS. The talks stalled before President Donald Trump took office. 

Victor A. Jaramillo, a lawyer for Rosenberg, said "Gilda looks forward to putting this matter behind her and moving forward with her life." UBS declined to comment on the case. 

U.S. prosecutors had spent years investigating whether Credit Suisse breached the 2014 plea deal in which it paid $2.6 billion and said it helped thousands of Americans evade taxes. A 2023 report by the Senate Finance Committee detailed "major violations" of the plea agreement, which required the bank to identify undeclared U.S. accounts to the IRS. 

The report said the bank failed to fully disclose U.S. assets despite having identified "thousands of previously undeclared accounts" valued at more than $1.3 billion. While the report doesn't name the Rosenbergs, it describes how the bank helped a family of dual citizens of the U.S. and Latin American country evade taxes. 

According to court documents in the Miami case, the family transferred about $90 million in assets in 2012 and 2013 to four other offshore banks without telling the IRS, and Rosenberg signed a 2012 document in which she falsely denied she was a U.S. citizen.  

Some of the banks, including Credit Suisse, knew that the Rosenbergs owed U.S. taxes, according to the statement of facts.

In a separate case last year, she pleaded guilty in Texas to conspiracy to commit wire fraud involving a Miami vending machine company she owns. She is scheduled to be sentenced later this year. 

Since the bank's 2014 guilty plea, other U.S. clients of Credit Suisse have been charged in tax cases. In 2016, Dan Horsky pleaded guilty to hiding more than $200 million in assets from the IRS. A Brazilian-American businessman, Dan Rotta, was indicted last year for allegedly using Credit Suisse, UBS and other Swiss banks to hide more than $20 million in assets from U.S. tax authorities over 35 years. 

Rotta, who had pleaded not guilty, is scheduled to change his plea at a court hearing on March 17, according to an electronic notice posted Monday. A lawyer for Rotta didn't immediately respond to a request to comment.