Brazil Seizes Passports of Credit Suisse Bankers

Brazilian police arrested the head of Credit Suisse Group's private banking unit in Brazil and seized the passports of six other bankers as part of a four- month investigation into money laundering and tax evasion.

Peter Schaffner, 48, Credit Suisse's chief for private banking in Brazil, was arrested and detained in Sao Paulo as he tried to board a plane to Zurich. Schaffner and four other of the executives from Switzerland's second-largest bank are Swiss and two are Brazilian, according to federal police.

Credit Suisse, which has been in Brazil since 1990, said in an advertisement in Brazilian newspapers today that it's cooperating with the probe and doesn't expect any effect on its banking relationships. Police raided Credit Suisse's private banking unit in Sao Paulo on March 21 and seized files and computers to determine whether the bank illegally transferred funds overseas and engaged in racketeering, according to police.

``Throughout this investigation strong signals were obtained that the suspects were acting in an illegal manner, sending large sums of money abroad that came from suspicious origins,'' said a statement from Brazil's federal police.
...