* Defendant says bank was aware of his actions
* Says bank bosses checked his activities for clients
* Credit Suisse declines to comment
ZURICH/WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A former Credit Suisse banker accused of helping wealthy Americans dodge U.S. taxes said on Monday he acted with the Swiss bank's knowledge and consent.
Emanuel Agustoni made the statement after being indicted on Feb. 23 alongside three other current and former Credit Suisse bankers accused of preparing strategies to help U.S. clients evade taxes.
"I always acted in the name of the bank and according to their instructions," Agustoni told Reuters via telephone.
"It's not the case that I did anything independently, the bank was always informed and my actions were checked by my bosses," Agustoni said.
A Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment. Credit Suisse said last week the bank was cooperating with authorities and "is not a target of the investigation."
Fellow defendant Michele Bergantino also declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. The other two defendants, Marco Adami and Roger Schaerer, could not immediately be reached for comment.
U.S. officials are investigating other banks after UBS AG in the past two years paid a fine of $780 million and agreed to hand over nearly 5,000 account names to the U.S. government to settle tax evasion charges.
Although Credit Suisse says it is not the target of a probe, the bank may still have to worry about its own liability for its employee behavior, experts said.
"The nice thing about corporate criminal liability under U.S. law is you get the bankers, you get the bank, as long as they are acting on behalf of the entity," said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and former criminal attorney at the Department of Justice.
One key could be the extent to which the bank cooperates with the U.S. government, Henning said.
"If they are cooperating even minimally," that could keep them off the hot seat for the moment."
(Reporting by Martin de Sa'Pinto in Zurich and Kim Dixon in Washington; Editing by Andrew Callus)