Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
\u201cThe Truth Will Set You Free\u201d
Tuesday, April 14, 2026<\/p>\n
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VIDEO<\/a><\/p>\n For several congresses, I and others in this body have been trying to bring attention to Swiss banks trying to hide assets that they accumulated during World War II.<\/p>\n And [I\u2019m leading] my colleagues in efforts to make sure that justice is done for the wealth and other private property that was taken from Jewish people who died in the Holocaust.<\/p>\n So once again, I\u2019m back to give a report and an update on that effort.<\/p>\n In February of this year, I chaired a bipartisan hearing<\/a> on my ongoing Credit Suisse Nazi accounts investigation.<\/p>\n That hearing was supposed to, in part, highlight the collaborative and cooperative work of the bank, UBS, which bought Credit Suisse, along with Neil Barofsky, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Senate Judiciary Committee, and what we had achieved up to that point.<\/p>\n UBS had committed to fully exposing the wrongs committed by Credit Suisse. After all, the information about Nazi evils belongs to humanity.<\/p>\n But, when UBS was informed that my committee may potentially hold a hearing, the previous cooperation that we got from UBS was scaled back.<\/p>\n Mr. Barofsky testified this to the committee: \u201cShortly after I told UBS that this committee was considering holding this hearing, UBS informed me that it would, for the first time, conduct a privilege review and withhold certain relevant, privileged materials from me and my team…\u201d<\/p>\n According to Mr. Barofsky, UBS leadership also provided misleading information to the committee, even after being warned they were misleading the Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n For example, at the hearing, UBS testified that it had withheld fewer than 150 documents from Mr. Barofsky.<\/p>\n But Mr. Barofsky said his team emailed UBS before our hearing \u201cexpressing concern that using the word \u2018document\u2019 was misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n As Barofsky said in this instance, the word document actually meant \u201chundreds or even thousands of pages of many different documents together.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the hearing, Mr. Barofsky told the committee that he urged UBS to \u201ccorrect any misimpression it may have made upon the Committee when it referenced the number of withheld and redacted documents as being only 150.\u201d<\/p>\n And, according to Barofsky, these documents are \u201crelevant to the question of whether a Nazi had an account or didn\u2019t have an account at Credit Suisse.\u201d<\/p>\n To date, UBS hasn\u2019t provided a true count of the amount of pages at issue.<\/p>\n However, Mr. Barofsky informed the Committee that as of March 11, 2026, approximately 23,000 pages of materials had been redacted or withheld from him.<\/p>\n UBS also took legal action against the Simon Wiesenthal Center.<\/p>\n Last week, thank God, a federal court in New York issued a ruling against UBS\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n However, if the bank were successful, it could\u2019ve blocked the Simon Wiesenthal Center from fully speaking on all Holocaust issues \u2013 very much a violation of First Amendment rights of freedom of speech.<\/p>\n Following the committee hearing, UBS failed to fully and completely respond to all Questions for the Record submitted by members of the Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019m going to talk about a Mr. Karofsky, different than Mr. Barofsky.<\/p>\n Mr. Karofsky is president of UBS Americas. That bank literally failed to answer any questions posed to [Karofsky] during the hearing.<\/p>\n His disrespect for the Committee is noted.<\/p>\n So, be on notice, Mr. Karofsky.<\/p>\n So, I kept the hearing record open and, this week, I\u2019ve sent additional Questions for the Record to the bank, UBS and others.<\/p>\n