a series of international investigations took place in the early 2000s regarding the use banking secrecy in credit suisse accounts for tax evasion. the brazilian government investigated 13 former and current credit suisse employees in 2008. the investigation led to arrests that year and in 2009 as part of a larger crackdown in brazil. four credit suisse bankers were accused of fraud by the us justice department in 2011 for helping wealthy americans avoid taxes. german authorities found that citizens were using insurance policies of a bermuda-based credit suisse subsidiary to earn tax-free interest. in november 2012, credit suisse's asset management division was merged with the private banking arm. in september 2012, the swiss government gave banks like credit suisse permission to provide information to the us justice department for tax evasion probes. in february 2014 it agreed to pay a fine of $197 million after one of its businesses served 8,500 us clients without registering its activities, leading to suspicion as to whether it was helping americans evade taxes. it was one of 14 swiss banks under investigation. separately, in 2013, german authorities began to probe credit suisse, its private bank subsidiary clariden leu, and its regional subsidiary neue aargauer bank for helping german citizens evade taxes. the bank eventually entered into a €150 million settlement with the government.