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Credit Suisse faces charges in cocaine trafficking trial
The drug money laundering case centers on the bank’s ties with a criminal ring
A Swiss criminal court opened trial proceedings on Monday against Credit Suisse, accusing the bank of failing to do enough to stop money laundering linked to drug trafficking by a Bulgarian criminal organization. Associated Press reports that the gang employed a wrestler who once hauled millions in currency by car to Switzerland.
The names of the defendants have not been made public, to protect their privacy, but Swiss prosecutors identified Credit Suisse by name in an indictment announced in December 2020.
The charge, which centers on a former manager at the Swiss bank and two members of the criminal ring, follows a years-long investigation into allegations of wrongdoing that apparently took place between 2004 and 2008.
According to AP, the case against the bank revolves around charges that it “did not take all necessary measures to halt the infraction of money laundering” by one of its employees.
Credit Suisse has denied any wrongdoing, saying during the hearing on Monday that it “unreservedly rejects as meritless all allegations in this legacy matter raised against it and is convinced that its former employee is innocent.” The bank added that it “will defend itself vigorously in court.”
The Swiss attorney general’s office said that, after the fall of communism, top-level athletes in Bulgaria “turned towards other sources of income, and numerous wrestlers received approaches from mafia clans.” Thus, one unnamed wrestler aimed to cash in by trafficking tons of cocaine through “mules” from South America to Europe by air and sea and then laundering the profits.
The proceeds from the drug sales entered Swiss bank accounts from 2004 to at least 2007 and were used to buy real estate in Bulgaria and Switzerland in particular, court proceedings show.
Prosecutors said that the wrestler’s “main offense was committed in February 2006, when he transported the equivalent of more than four million Swiss francs (over $4 million) in small denomination notes hidden in his car from Barcelona to Switzerland.”
They also said that a former Credit Suisse executive in charge of business relations with the criminal organization carried out transactions for the ring despite “strong indications that the funds were of criminal origin.”
The executive is accused of preventing the identification of the origin of the funds, which ultimately involved transactions of more than 140 million Swiss francs (about $150 million).
Credit Suisse has consistently rejected the allegations and has said the court could order the “disgorgement of profits” and a maximum fine of about $5 million.
Credit Suisse ignored murders while laundering cocaine cash,
banker testifies
Bank management accused at trial of knowingly accepting money from criminal activities
A former Credit Suisse banker, who had been previously accused of money laundering, has reportedly told a Swiss court that top management at the bank knew about murders and cocaine smuggling connected to a Bulgarian gang, but continued managing cash that is now at the center of a criminal trial.
The Zurich-based banking giant and one of its former employees are facing charges for failing to tackle money-laundering practices connected to drug trafficking by a Bulgarian criminal syndicate. The gang allegedly managed to launder millions of euros, with some of it delivered to the bank in suitcases stuffed with cash.
Credit Suisse has denied any wrongdoing and stood by its former bankers accused. The trial began last week and is scheduled to end in early March.
The case hinges on illegal relations established between Switzerland’s second-largest bank and former Bulgarian wrestler Evelin Banev and multiple associates, two of whom are also charged in the case. The Bulgarian cocaine trafficking gang allegedly employed Banev, who is accused of hauling millions in currency by car to Switzerland. The events reportedly unfolded between 2004 and 2008.
In an email from June 2005 read out in court last week, the banker played down press reports linking the murder of one of Banev’s associates a month earlier with drug trafficking.
“After the homicide we have decided to continue the business relationships,” the banker wrote in the email. “The said (short and imprecise) article linking the murder to Spanish cocaine… has not been confirmed.”
Last week, Banev’s attorney said in Sofia that his client denied any involvement in laundering money from drug trafficking through Credit Suisse. Meanwhile, the former wrestler was convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 2017 and money laundering in Bulgaria in 2018. Banev was detained in September in Ukraine after Bulgaria and Romania sought his arrest.
The banker accused of helping conceal the criminal origins of the money, totaling more than 146 million Swiss francs in transactions, appeared in Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona with her managers, who gave evidence. The banker’s identity cannot be reported under Swiss privacy rules.
Credit Suisse disputes the illegal origin of the money, according to a source close to the bank quoted by Reuters. The source also claims that Banev and his circle operated legitimate businesses in construction, leasing, and hotels.
King hid personal wealth in Credit Suisse accounts – media
Leaked data from the Swiss bank show King of Jordan Abdullah II
placed his personal funds in at least six accounts
Jordan’s monarch, King Abdullah II, has been named in the leaked trove of data from Credit Suisse bank, as the holder of at least six accounts where he has housed millions of dollars in personal wealth, The Guardian reported on Monday. Alongside Abdullah’s own accounts, his wife, Queen Rania, allegedly had another.
The leaked data about the Credit Suisse accounts comes months after the monarch was featured in the Pandora papers, another leak of data which revealed King Abdullah’s property portfolio, including premises in California and central London.
A spokesperson for Jordan’s king and queen stated there has been no wrongdoing on behalf of the pair, claiming that the source of their funds was entirely compliant with the relevant tax legislation. Under Jordanian law, King Abdullah is exempt from paying taxes.
According to the monarch’s lawyers, a large proportion of the funds held within his Credit Suisse accounts were derived from the inheritance he received from his father, King Hussein. The law in Jordan exempts the king from paying inheritance tax as well.
During the release of the Pandora papers, the UK media claimed that Jordanian intelligence forces had sought to block access to online stories about the monarch’s wealth. King Abdullah’s lawyers have denied this suggestion. It is not known if any similar attempts have or are set to be made in the wake of the latest revelations.
King Abdullah’s lawyers stated that only one of the monarch’s Credit Suisse accounts remains open, comprising investment companies established to serve as a trust fund for their children, as well as using the bank to hold proceeds from the sale of a “large wide body aircraft.”
Switzerland could be blacklisted as money-laundering state
The financial hub is dealing with the fallout from a huge leak
of Credit Suisse banking data
The European People’s Party (EPP), the largest political grouping in the European Parliament, called for a review of Switzerland’s banking practices on Monday, and for the country to be included on the EU’s dirty-money blacklist after leaked Credit Suisse documents revealed the bank’s dealings with shady clientele.
The Swiss banking giant has reportedly served a motley client roster for decades, which included heads of state and spy chiefs, as well as human rights abusers and sanctioned individuals.
“The ‘Swiss Secrets’ findings point to massive shortcomings of Swiss banks when it comes to the prevention of money laundering,” the EPP’s coordinator on economic affairs Markus Ferber said, adding: “When Swiss banks fail to apply international anti-money-laundering standards properly, Switzerland itself becomes a high-risk jurisdiction.”
The EPP released the proposal following media reports on Monday on the results of investigations into the leak of data on thousands of accounts held at the bank during recent decades. The investigation, called Suisse Secrets, identified clients of the Swiss bank who had been involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption, and other serious crimes.
Credit Suisse has strongly rejected any allegations of wrongdoing, saying that the media reports were based on “selective information taken out of context, resulting in tendentious interpretations of the bank’s business conduct.”
If Switzerland is added to the blacklist, it would face the kind of enhanced due diligence applied to transactions linked to nations including Iran, Myanmar, Syria and North Korea. The EU money-laundering blacklist currently comprises 21 countries, none of which are European.
Switzerland is not part of the EU.
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