Close on the heels of the alleged money laundering by farm owner Hasan Ali Khan through Switzerland-based bank UBS, Europe's biggest bank by assets, another Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, has come under scrutiny of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which investigates foreign exchange violations. | |
| Sources at the ED and Income Tax (I-T) department confirmed that they had approached the Swiss Justice Department to freeze Khan's accounts, which had a whopping balance of $1.8 billion, in the two Swiss banks. As per their documents, the money was deposited into Khan's accounts in just four months during 2006. |
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| Sources said the ED team, armed with documents supplied by the I-T department, had met officials of the Swiss Justice Ministry on January 12 this year. |
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| The banks returned the documents back to ED officials saying the documents were forged. The ED officials were also rebuffed by a Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman, who bluntly said that the documents presented "were incomplete and some of them were forged," said sources. |
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| The justice ministry official had also pointed out that any request to block accounts must not only be accompanied by complete and bonafide documents, but also categorically showed a link between the offences and the eventual funds in Switzerland. Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment. |
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| UBS deal to buy Standard Chartered Bank's Indian mutual fund business was blocked by the Reserve Bank of India due to the bank's alleged involvement in the money laundering case. |
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| The Swiss authorities informed its Indian counterparts about the forged documents. They even sent a diplomatic note to the Indian Embassy in Switzerland on January 29. |
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