Zurich It was the surprise at the start of the trial: Evelin Banev, a convicted Bulgarian drug lord, is to be questioned before the Swiss Federal Criminal Court about allegations that he is said to have laundered millions of dollars in cocaine smuggling with the help of Credit Suisse. The imprisoned godfather will soon be connected as a witness via video in the courtroom in Bellinzona, as was announced on Monday.
A lot depends on the survey for the major Swiss bank: Credit Suisse has had to answer to the Federal Criminal Court since this week, together with a former customer advisor and two other accused.
The allegations are serious: Credit Suisse is said to have helped Banev, the Bulgarian godfather of a cocaine smuggling cartel, launder CHF 146 million in drug money. The Bulgarian’s client advisor at the bank, who no longer works at Credit Suisse, is said to have accepted large sums of cash and helped to disguise the illegal origin of the money.
When asked, the bank stated: “Credit Suisse formally rejects the allegations made against it in this past-related matter and is also convinced of the innocence of its former employee.” And further: “Credit Suisse will resolutely defend its position in court .”
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It is the first time that a bank in Switzerland, Credit Suisse, has had to face criminal charges. So far, only individual bankers have been brought before the court. But the process has long since become a reputational risk, and not just for the ailing major bank.
In the course of the proceedings, the sometimes inglorious role of the prosecutors should also become an issue. In addition, the bank’s defense strategy is likely to bring to mind the adventurous conditions under which banking transactions were conducted in Switzerland at the beginning of the noughties.
The allegations span the period from 2004 to 2008. At the time, Banev was said to be a Credit Suisse client, a former Bulgarian wrestler turned entrepreneur and drug smuggler after his career. In Italy and Bulgaria he was sentenced to long prison terms for drug smuggling.
Employee is said to have accepted suitcases of cash
Banev’s clan is accused of importing several dozen tons of cocaine from South America to Europe by couriers by boat and plane. Banev went into hiding in 2015 and was arrested in Ukraine in September last year. However, he has not been charged in Switzerland.
Instead, his customer advisor, a former professional tennis player from Bulgaria. Her career is exemplary of the CVs that were in demand in Swiss private banking in the noughties: access to wealthy clients in fast-growing markets was more important than a formal financial education.
The former Credit Suisse employee is said to have accepted a suitcase full of cash from a confidant of Banev’s, which was deposited in the bank’s safe deposit boxes. The investigators were no longer able to question the alleged money messenger, he was shot in 2005.
The acceptance of this money has to be proven, says a person familiar with the procedure in an interview with the Handelsblatt. The prosecutors would also have to prove that the funds had an illegal origin and that the accused ex-banker should have known that.
The prosecutors base their charges on a number of judgments against Banev and his clan, for example in Bulgaria and Spain. However, it remains to be seen whether this will convince the federal judges. The investigations in Switzerland itself did not always go smoothly.
Crackdown by investigators
The accused banker was held in custody for several months in 2009. A person familiar with the events describes the investigators’ tough approach. The woman, who had just given birth, was arrested and isolated, and the child’s father was left in the dark for days about the woman’s whereabouts.
However, the brutal investigative tactics did not bring the hoped-for breakthrough: more than twelve years elapsed from the time the accused were held in custody until the charges were brought. In serious cases, money laundering in Switzerland becomes statute-barred after 15 years. Even in the event of a conviction, the bank can hope that a large part of the alleged crime period will be excluded.
And so it could be a trial from which no one emerges as a winner: a bank that again produces negative headlines, prosecutors who have to justify themselves for the long duration of the proceedings – and a defendant for whom the dream job at a Swiss bank became a nightmare.
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