WASHINGTON, D.C.—Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO, issued the following statement on the filing of an amicus brief in a class action lawsuit against Credit Suisse, its auditor, and its directors, now pending in the Southern District of New York (Stevenson v. Thornburgh):
“The shareholders harmed by Credit Suisse’s extraordinary crime spree have a right to bring their claims in a U.S. court and under U.S. law. For more than a decade, Credit Suisse allegedly engaged in a breathtaking series of unlawful schemes, from bank and wire fraud to money laundering and aiding tax evaders. Its stock price plummeted; it was brought to the brink of collapse; and it had to be saved from bankruptcy by a state-arranged fire sale to UBS in March. Now the shareholders are seeking to hold the bank, its directors, and its auditor accountable and recover their losses.
“But the bank is trying to get the case thrown out of court on a variety of grounds, including claiming that it should be heard in a foreign court, even though the plaintiffs’ claims focus on the bank’s U.S. victims, U.S. defendants, and U.S.-based evidence. Tossing the case out of the U.S. courts would be a miscarriage of justice and that’s why we’ve urged the court in our amicus brief to reject this attempt to evade U.S. law and accountability. The shareholders’ best and perhaps only realistic chance of recovery for the extraordinary series of alleged schemes perpetrated by the defendants that in effect destroyed the bank is to allow the case to proceed in U.S. courts.
“Also at stake is the powerful deterrent effect that such an action in the U.S. can have in disciplining egregiously illegal conduct by banks, their directors, and auditors. That is especially true in this case where the plaintiffs allege violations of the civil RICO statute, which permits multiple and enhanced recoveries. If the case is forced into a tribunal outside the U.S., both the remedial and deterrent value of the plaintiffs’ claims would be lost or severely curtailed, to the detriment of the injured investors and the public interest more broadly.”
The brief can be found here.
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