- Credit Suisse has lost the first Swiss criminal case against a major bank.
- The Swiss Federal Criminal Court found the institute guilty of money laundering on Monday. The big bank has to pay a fine of two million francs.
- The trial, in which witness statements about murders were made, among other things, is considered a test case for tougher action by the judiciary against the country’s banks.
The judges had to decide whether the bank and a former employee had done enough to prevent money laundering by a suspected Bulgarian cocaine trafficking gang in 2004-2008.
As for the bank, the court found deficiencies within the bank during the relevant period, the court said in a statement. This both in terms of managing customer relationships with the criminal organization and in terms of monitoring the implementation of the anti-money laundering rules. These deficiencies would have allowed the criminal organization’s assets to be confiscated, which was the basis of a former bank employee’s conviction for skilled money laundering.
At the center of the 515-page indictment was former Bulgarian top wrestler Evelin Banev, who was sentenced to long prison terms in Italy and Bulgaria for drug smuggling. His clan is accused of importing several dozen tons of cocaine from South America to Europe.
CS plans to appeal
According to the indictment, one of Banev’s confidants brought millions in cash in used bills to Credit Suisse in trolley suitcases and put the money in a safe deposit box. A Credit Suisse consultant helped to disguise the origin of the assets by handling financial transactions. The former employee testified in court that she followed the instructions of her bosses.
Credit Suisse will appeal against the decision of the Federal Criminal Court. The decision of the Federal Criminal Court to impose a fine for the period from July 2007 to December 2008 due to certain historical organizational deficiencies is noted in a statement by the bank on Monday. The investigations went back more than 14 years.