ZURICH- Another senior Credit Suisse executive was followed this year, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung reported, suggesting the surveillance of former wealth management boss Iqbal Khan was not an isolated incident as the Swiss bank has said.
The report in the conservative NZZ, a Swiss newspaper widely read by those in the financial industry, looked set to heap pressure on the bank just as the September scandal over Khan was dying down.
Credit Suisse referred to a statement it gave the paper, saying the investigation it launched via law firm Homburger after news it had Khan followed had turned up no evidence that any other Credit Suisse employee had been observed.
The Khan case has prompted an open criminal investigation after the star banker confronted a detective who was following him.
An internal inquiry cleared Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam but cost the job of his right-hand man, then-chief operating officer Pierre-Olivier Bouee.
Thiam has said he had not directly or indirectly authorised the surveillance of Khan, who left after a spat with Thiam and later joined arch-rival UBS Group. The bank has insisted this was an isolated incident that did not reflect its culture.
The NZZ on Tuesday cited documents and photographs that it said documented the surveillance of former human resources head Peter Goerke in February, just before he left the management board to become a senior adviser at Credit Suisse.
“The circumstances indicate that it was Credit Suisse that via a go-between gave the mandate for this surveillance,” the paper said.
The “Project Kuesnacht” operation cost 12,000 Swiss francs (9,379 pounds) and involved four cars with two detectives each, it said. The objective was to track the movements of Goerke, who had followed Thiam to Credit Suisse from British insurer Prudential, to see where he went and whom he met.
It said it was unclear why Goerke was followed.
Thiam said in October a “media campaign” surrounding the tailing of Khan had left clients undeterred and business unscathed. The criminal investigation into the affair was still open, prosecutors said on Dec. 10.
Credit Suisse stock was indicated down 0.1% in pre-market activity.
(Content and photos syndicated via Reuters)
