The French subsidiary of UBS lost before the Court of Cassation and will therefore be tried for harassment of two whistleblowers at the origin of revelations of tax fraud, tampering with witnesses and obstructing the operation of the CHSCT, the joint trade union body -direction in charge of health issues, according to a decision consulted Thursday by AFP.
The highest court of the French judiciary rejected, in a judgment dated Tuesday, an appeal filed by the bank to challenge its referral to the Paris Criminal Court.
The former head of internal audit Nicolas Forissier and Stphanie Gibaud, former head of event marketing, who have since been made redundant, had contributed to denouncing the practices of the Swiss group at the end of the 2000s and to the triggering of an investigation in France into a vast system of tax evasion.
In 2017, the investigating judge ordered that UBS France be tried for moral harassment, but dismissed the prosecution for two other offenses.
But after many procedural round trips, the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal finally dismissed the bank at the beginning of March for moral harassment but also for obstructing the regular functioning of the CHSCT and witness tampering. A dismissal now final.
All of UBS’s Pavlovian appeals fail one behind the other. The only result sought: to delay a public trial on unprecedented facts, reacted to AFP the lawyers of Mr. Forissier, Me William Bourdon and Apolline Cagnat.
After an even step by UBS to try to evade the correctional trial which awaits it, the Court of Cassation has just rejected its last appeal. The trial of the bank will therefore take place, rejoiced Mr. David Koubbi, adviser to Mrs. Gibaud.
The lawyer for UBS France did not respond to requests from AFP.
According to elements of the investigation consulted by AFP, Nicolas Forissier would have suffered a form of blackmail from the management, who would have excluded him from a job protection plan to encourage him not to testify. in another procedure and sign an enhanced confidentiality clause.
UBS is also suspected of having exerted pressure on the CHSCT (Committee for health, safety and working conditions), and of having intimidated its secretary Stphanie Gibaud, to control and censor the minutes of meetings.
In December 2021, the Swiss bank was sentenced on appeal to pay a total of 1.8 billion euros for having set up a system aimed at facilitating tax evasion by wealthy French taxpayers between 2004 and 2012. The parent company appealed in cassation, but not the French subsidiary for which the penalty is final.