science

Suisse Secrets

Suisse Secrets is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Suisse Secrets rather than just read about it. In short: Suisse Secrets was a leak of banking data detailing more than CHF 100 billion (roughly US$108.5bn, €95.5bn or £80bn) held in nominee accounts linked to over 30,000 clients of Credit Suisse, the largest ever leak from a major Swiss bank. It revealed that autocrats, oligarchs, war criminals, human traffickers and drug dealers had accounts with Credit Suisse, a failure of the bank to apply due diligence.

Key takeaways

Suisse Secrets belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Suisse Secrets to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Suisse Secrets from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Suisse Secrets was a leak of banking data detailing more than CHF 100 billion (roughly US$108.5bn, €95.5bn or £80bn) held in nominee accounts linked to over 30,000 clients of Credit Suisse, the largest ever leak from a major Swiss bank. It revealed that autocrats, oligarchs, war criminals, human traffickers and drug dealers had accounts with Credit Suisse, a failure of the bank to apply due diligence. Swiss media was disallowed from publishing any investigatory work due to strict banking secrecy laws, which brought up their collective concern that such laws run contrary to freedom of the press.

Background

On 20 February 2022, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that "over a year ago" it had received secret data through a secure digital mailbox on more than 30,000 Credit Suisse bank customers and their more than 18,000 accounts, which provide insights into the inner workings of the banking giant. The data were evaluated by 48 media companies from all over the world, among them the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, The Guardian, The New York Times and Le Monde. Swiss news organizations did not participate in the investigation because a Swiss law concerning bank secrecy forbids the publication of banking secrets. The data covers accounts and transactions from the 1940s up to 2010.

Statement of the source The data were leaked anonymously by a person or group, who wrote in an accompanying statement, that they felt Swiss banking secrecy laws were "immoral", that "Swiss banks ..[were] collaborators of tax evaders", because "a significant number of these accounts were opened with the sole purpose of hiding their holder's wealth from fiscal institutions and/or avoiding the payment of taxes on capital gains". They opined that Common Reporting Standards were a step in the right direction, but imposed "a disproportionate financial and infrastructural burden on developing nations", which "enables corruption and starves developing countries of much-needed tax revenue". The source stated that "responsibility for this state of affairs does not lie with Swiss banks but rather with the Swiss legal system".

Notable people named As a result of the leak, numerous people allegedly involved in crimes ranging from corruption and bribery to drug and human trafficking became known as Credit Suisse clients.

King Abdullah II of Jordan and Queen Rania of Jordan Aliaksei Aleksin, Belarusian businessman blacklisted by the EU and US, close associate of Alexander Lukashenko Ayad Allawi, former Deputy Prime Minister, Iraq Hashim Jawan Bakht, Pakistani politician Aziz Mohammad Bhai, Bangladesh businessman and convicted murderer Haji Saifullah Khan Bangash, Pakistani politician Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, Spanish-French aristocrat, and his wife Margarita Vargas Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian autocrat Anas el-Fiqqi, Egypt, former Minister of Information Ivan Guta, Ukrainian agricultural baron Abdul Halim Khaddam, Syrian politician Zahid Ali Akbar Khan, Pakistani general and engineering officer Waqar Ahmed Khan, Pakistani politician Sultan Ali Lakhani, Pakistani businessman Luis Carlos de León, former financial director of La Electricidad de Caracas, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA Pavlo Lazarenko, former Prime Minister of Ukraine Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Oligarch and Political figure Ronald Li, founder of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Ferdinand Marcos, former President of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippines Hisham Talaat Moustafa, Egyptian real estate magnate Gamal Mubarak and Alaa Mubarak, sons of former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Sa'ad Khair, Jordanian intelligence chief Rana Mubashir, Pakistani journalist Khaled Nezzar, General and former Defense Minister of Algeria Akhtar Abdur Rahman, former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of Pakistan Billy Rautenbach, Zimbabwean businessman Qosim Rohbar, former governor of Sughd and former Minister of Agriculture of Tajikistan Rodoljub Radulović, Serbian drug lord Hussein Salem, Egyptian businessman and advisor to Hosni Mubarak Armen Sarkissian, former President of Armenia Eduard Seidel, German businessman Álvaro Sobrinho, Angolan businessman James Soong, Taiwanese politician implicated in the Taiwan frigate scandal Omar Suleiman, former Vice-President of Egypt and former head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate Nadezhda Tokayeva, former first lady of Kazakhstan Vasif Talibov, de facto leader of the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan Antonio Velardo, money launderer for two families of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta Nervis Villalobos, Venezuelan energy minister under Hugo Chavez, part of massive bribery scheme Bruno Wang, Taiwanese fugitive implicated in the Taiwan frigate scandal A documentary also mentioned Hugo Chavez's bodyguard Carlos Luis Aguilera Borjas, who later became head of the secret police as having 8 million CHF in a Credit Suisse account. As of 2022 he was being sought in Andorra. He owned 100 million in a Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique account. Roberto Rincon had seven accounts with Credit Suisse.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Suisse Secrets

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Suisse Secrets claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Suisse Secrets before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Suisse Secrets ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Suisse Secrets

In research: Suisse Secrets appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Suisse Secrets in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Suisse Secrets is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2022 documents, 2022 scandals, Credit Suisse, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Suisse Secrets outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Suisse Secrets” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Suisse Secrets in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Suisse Secrets means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Suisse Secrets out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Suisse Secrets in simple terms?

Why does Suisse Secrets matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Suisse Secrets?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Suisse Secrets.