As far as I know, Credit Suisse didn't evade taxes, that they as a corporation had to pay. What they did, was help American individuals evade taxes in the US.

As far as I know, Credit Suisse didn't evade taxes, that they as a corporation had to pay. What they did, was help American individuals evade taxes in the US. And the bank isn't even based in US, but in Zurich. As far as I know, they only have their investment banking arm in New York. So what the US government is doing here is a) converting the attractiveness of the American market into cash for the government (which might be kinda OK, I dunno) and b) using their control of dollar settlements to bully foreign banks into following the US law (which is a somewhat dick move).