As the Credit Suisse drug ring trial in Bellinzona in the Canton of Ticino entered the second week of a month-long trial, a delicate transaction of Credit Suisse arose.
Tons of cocaine, money laundering and a gang of former Bulgarian professional wrestlers is at the heart of the case, which has already occupied courts in Spain, Romania, Italy and Bulgaria.
Among the five defendants are a former Credit Suisse banker and the bank itself which stands accused of organizational deficiencies in the money laundering complex by the Swiss Attorney General’s Office.
As reported by «Reuters» from the proceedings at the beginning of the week, the bank's handling of warnings from authorities has now surfaced.
Accusations concern events in the years 2004 to 2007. The court is only considering the events from 2007 onwards.
The prosecution presented an e-mail according to which supervisors at Credit Suisse are said to have known the bank paid out funds amounting to 9.3 million euros ($10.5 million) to suspected gang members in 2007, with a further 4 million Swiss francs to follow.
This despite the fact that Bulgarian authorities had opened a criminal investigation into drug trafficking against the head of the gang in question and the bank's compliance department having been alerted.
Looking Back
A former supervisor of Credit Suisse's Eastern European business, summoned by the court, testified that money laundering as a criminal offense was still relatively new to the bank at the time.
Credit Suisse had expert opinions confirm that its organization in the years in question between 2004 and 2007 was compliant with the requirements of financial supervision (at that time Swiss Federal Banking Commission SFBC). The bank formally rejects the accusations against the company and also against the former employee.
