Credit Suisse judge accepts $2.6-bn tax evasion plea deal

Credit Suisse AG's $2.6-billion plea bargain resolving allegations it helped wealthy Americans avoid paying taxes was accepted by a federal judge, ending a three-year probe that helped upend Swiss bank secrecy.

The first global banking unit in more than a decade to plead guilty to a crime in a US court, Zurich-based Credit Suisse, was sentenced on Friday by US District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith in Norfolk, Virginia.