Hanspeter Brunner, the Swiss banker who got caught up in the 1MDB corruption scandal, is back in business, information obtained by finews.asia shows.
Swiss bank manager Hanspeter Brunner was out of the limelight for more than two years, having retired in 2016 from his position as head of Asia at Banca della Svizzera Italiana, or BSI.
He chose the timing of his departure very wisely: the huge scandal involving corruption and money laundering surrounding the Malaysian state fund 1MDB broke that same year. And BSI was heavily involved in the case as vast sums of money were moved through its accounts.
Cooperating With Authorities
Other Swiss banks including Falcon Private Bank, UBS, Rothschild, and Credit Suisse were involved too, but no other business was hit harder. The financial market supervisors of Singapore and Switzerland yanked BSI's banking license and a former banker was imprisoned. In 2017, Swiss private bank EFG International acquired BSI.
Brunner escaped being formally accused – after he was BSI’s head of Asia for years. The authorities for a period kept his passport and he had to stay in town and remain at the government’s disposal. He cooperated with the Commercial Affairs Department, or CAD, the city-state's criminal investigators.
But to this day, there have been no mention of sanctions against him and he also received his passport back a month ago, as finews.asia reported exclusively. Now, the 66-year-old is back in business.
Working With His Son
He is one of the advisers working for Swiss Due Diligence, based in Rapperswil – 30 kilometers down the lake from Zurich. The company specializes in investigations in due diligence and background research into clients, staff and business partners.
Swiss Due Diligence wants to enable clients to make better decisions in mergers and acquisitions, employment of new staff and improvements of guidelines and procedures.
The founder and CEO is Gabriel Brunner (pictured left) – son of Hanspeter Brunner. He is an expert and specialist in due diligence, know-your-customer, know-your-employee, the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. The younger Brunner last worked for Saxo Bank and PwC.
«Hanspeter Brunner and all other board of advisors do not consult nor provide any specific knowledge or advice in topics related to Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorist Financing, Compliance, Due Diligence or relevant Regulatory Requirements in any capacity with regards to clients or reports,» Gabriel Brunner said to finews.asia.
«None of the board of advisors are consultants or employed by my company. They play an advisory role, as mentioned above, due to their vast and in-depth experience in their respective industries and countries,» he added.
Specific Knowledge
Another adviser of Swiss Due Diligence is Andreas Schuepbach, a former BSI private banker and specialist in Eastern Europe. Schuepbach used to work with Brunner at Coutts International. Stephan Zueger, formerly of Credit Suisse and Migrosbank is also member of the team. He is currently an LGT private banker.
«The Board of Advisors is there for industry and country specific knowledge, seeing as they all have close to, or more than 30 years of experience in these fields,» he added. «All research and subsequent reports are written only by myself. There is no influence on subject matters or reports from any board of advisors,» Brunner also said.
Laudable and Ironic
It is commendable that Brunner is back in business. He after all once was named «Asian Private Banker of the Year» and he likes to call himself the «first Swiss banker in China», having moved there in 1985 for Credit Suisse.
But it is also rich in irony that the former head of BSI in Asia, which made headlines as a company that caught up in a huge corruption and money-laundering scandal now investigates – money laundering and corruption.
Brunner of course is innocent until proven guilty and no charges seem to have been levelled at him. BSI meanwhile is no longer in business.
