UBS fails with liability limitation for Nazi accounts
Keystone-SDA
A US judge has rejected an attempt by Swiss bank UBS to limit its liability over new findings on accounts linked to Nazi Germany.
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The bank had argued that a 1999 settlement should be interpreted as shielding it from any future lawsuits stemming from newly uncovered evidence.
However, the federal judge overseeing the case in Brooklyn, New York, dismissed the request on Tuesday, according to the ruling seen by the news agency AWP. Judge Edward Korman said UBS was effectively asking the court to rule on “hypothetical” lawsuits. Without a specific legal dispute before him, he said, there was no basis for the court to interpret the agreement.
“As long as there is no actual legal dispute requiring a court ruling, the agreement stands as it is,” the judge wrote.
+Read more about the Holocaust assets controversy
The question of new Holocaust-related lawsuits in the United States therefore remains unresolved. The issue has been reopened by fresh evidence pointing to links between the former Credit Suisse and its predecessor institutions and Nazi-era accounts.
Credit Suisse ties to the SS more extensive than previously thought
In early February, the US Senate identified 890 former Credit Suisse accounts that may have been linked to Nazi Germany. Some of these accounts – a number of which reportedly remained open until 2020 – were previously unknown. The Senate said they were held by institutions including Germany’s foreign ministry, an arms manufacturer and the German Red Cross, according to Swiss public broadcaster RTSExternal link.
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Swiss banks accused of hiding data behind secrecy laws
The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, said the findings suggest Credit Suisse’s ties to the Nazi regime were more extensive than previously thought. Investigators said Germany’s wartime SS economic office held an account at the Swiss bank. Credit Suisse is also alleged to have been linked to a scheme that helped Nazis escape to Argentina.
As reported by Bloomberg, in the late 1940s the building at 49 Marktgasse, in Bern, was a key stop on the secret escape routes used by Nazi officials fleeing justice and heading to South America, the so-called ratlines. The property was owned at the time by a predecessor of Credit Suisse.
Around $1.25 billion paid
UBS took over Credit Suisse in 2023. In 1999, UBS and Credit Suisse jointly paid $1.25 billion (CHF 985 million) to victims of the Nazi regime and their families as part of a settlement of claims brought at the time.
Now, UBS has become embroiled in a legal dispute with the Jewish human rights organisation Simon Wiesenthal Center in a New York court. The organisation, which is known for its efforts to track down former Nazis, is challenging whether the bank could face billions of dollars in fresh claims over its wartime dealings with the Third Reich.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center argued that UBS’s proposal would stretch the 1999 agreement too far. It warned that doing so could mean new evidence of possible links between banks and the Nazi regime would also end up being covered by the old settlement.
UBS said in a statement that it welcomed the court’s consideration of the issue. “Nothing in the judge’s decision contradicts our interpretation of the 1999 agreement,” the bank said.
In an earlier statement, the bank said it had asked the court to clarify the agreement to head off any potential legal action. UBS declined to comment on possible financial implications.
Nazi gold in Swiss banks
Between 1940 and 1945, Swiss banks and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) bought gold from Germany’s Reichsbank. An initial report puts the total value at between CHF1.3 billion and CHF1.45 billion. At the same time, around CHF2.5 billion was sold or lent to the Allied powers, reported Swiss newspaper Le TempsExternal link.
The problem with the German gold is that it was acquired illegally. After the war, it emerged that it had been taken from the central bank reserves of the Netherlands and Belgium and, in part, from victims of concentration camps.
Adapted from German and French by AI/sp
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