Credit Suisse tax evasion, Ex-Starbucks CEO grilled, and Pepsi’s new logo
Swiss bank helps Americans evade taxes, Howard Schultz grilled by Sen. Bernie Sanders over Starbucks union busting, Pepsi releases new logo
Highlights:
Credit Suisse shelters wealthy Americans from taxes.
Howard Schultz denies Bernie Sanders Starbucks union-busting allegations.
PepsiCo releases a new Pepsi logo drawing attention to lower sugar options.
Credit Suisse helps Americans evade taxes
Back in 2014, Credit Suisse CS 0.00%↑ plead guilty to criminal charges for helping their US clients hide assets to avoid paying taxes in the states. New information shows that even after reaching an agreement with the United States to reform their policies and admitting to using fake entities, destroying account records, and hand-delivering cash to the United States-based clientele, the bank continued to violate the agreement.
The Senate Finance Committee has uncovered that roughly 25 American families used the formerly renowned Swiss bank to hide assets totaling over $700 million.
Dodging regulation
While many American accounts were closed, some high-net-worth individuals had their funds moved to other Swiss banks, while others continued to work with Credit Suisse and had their account nationality changed. Some even revoked their American citizenship (for documentation purposes at least).
In one email, one of Credit Suisse’s banker writes to another bank employee, “please don’t write or document these topics.”
One American client, an heir to a $200 million fortune deposited at Credit Suisse, emailed to say they renounced their U.S. citizenship.
“I tried to reach you, congratulation!!!!!” their private banker emailed back. “This is a big step for you and I know it was not easy.”
The heir to the fortune replied, “Thanks … hopefully this should also make Credit Suisse now more relaxed.”
The heir closed the message with a smiley face. (CNBC)
Pay up
Former DOJ prosecutor Jeffrey Neiman believes that Credit Suisse should have to pay the millions of dollars in fines that the bank agreed to pay in 2014 but was never required to. In 2014 the bank was set to pay $2.6 billion but a federal judge ordered them to pay only $1.3 billion.
“I think Credit Suisse is aware of Americans who are still hiding money today. And I think the bank is doing whatever it can to contain whatever this damage is,” stated Neiman.
Ex-Starbucks CEO grilled on union busting
Senator Bernie Sanders who also chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, ripped into former Starbucks SBUX 0.00%↑ CEO Howard Schultz at the most recent hearing.
Schultz has been under scrutiny ever since stepping back in as interim CEO. The Starbucks story has been one revolving around the union push. Roughly 300 Starbucks locations have voted to unionize out of the nearly 16,000 US stores.
Of the 300 stores which confirmed unionization, zero have agreed on contracts with Starbucks, which reportedly has not come to the negotiating table in a fair manner. Schultz denies these allegations, stating the company had always been willing to meet face-to-face citing concerns over reaching terms via Zoom.
Meanwhile, Starbucks has seen over 500 complaints of unfair labor practices filed against it while filing 100 of its own complaints against the union. Federal judges have found the company broke federal labor law 130 times.
Schultz affirmed the committee, "Starbucks coffee company, unequivocally, has not broken the law.”
The hearing was a “non-event” per TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles. The stock rose 4.5% over the last five days and has surged over 21% in the past six months.
New Pepsi logo
PepsiCo PEP 0.00%↑ launched a new logo for the staple cola-flavored beverage for the first time in 14 years. The logo will mark the brand's 125th anniversary and emphasizes Pepsi’s push to limit the sugar in its soda.
The redesign focuses on centering the brand name back into the logo itself after its extended stint on the outside looking in. It also brings back the black color of the word Pepsi to create more contrast and draw attention to the zero-sugar version of the drink.
"The Black lettering was a creative design choice to bring more boldness and contrast to the logo while also paying homage to our focus on Pepsi Zero Sugar," said Porcini, Pepsi’s chief design officer.
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