The private investigators that followed ex-Credit Suisse banker Iqbal Khan on behalf of his former employer have accused the bank of having hampered their work through leaks.
The reputation of Credit Suisse has been badly tarnished by the revelations about the bank’s order to have Iqbal Khan followed by private investigators after he signed a contract at arch-rival UBS.
Investigo, the firm that received the contract to check on Khan and whose agents were detected by the banker in Zurich, has now criticized the bank in a statement to Swiss television «SRF». In the statement, Investigo claims it was completely incomprehensible that Credit Suisse had passed on confidential information to the media.
Leaking Information
The investigators, described as amateurish due to their failure to remain undetected by their prey, suspect the bank itself had alerted Khan about the surveillance job by leaking the information.
It has been widely reported that Khan had hired bodyguards before the investigation contract had been issued to Investigo.
«After all the indiscretions by the client it cannot be excluded that the surveillance was leaked too,» Investigo was cited as claiming in the «SRF» report. Credit Suisse didn’t comment when confronted with the claims by the television channel.
A Very Private Spat
Credit Suisse Chief Operating Officer Pierre-Olivier Bouée has resigned from his job following the revelations and the internal investigation ordered by Chairman Urs Rohner. The probe also concluded that CEO Tidjane Thiam had no knowledge of the surveillance contract.
Before Khan resigned from his job at the bank, he had clashed with Thiam. The two bankers are living door-to-door in Herrliberg, a posh suburb situated on the shores of the Lake of Zurich.
Khan was said to have demanded more responsibility and assurances about his future role at Switzerland’s No. 2. When these demands were rejected, he resigned, according to these reports.
