A spying scandal has just turned everything on its head for Switzerland’s finance ministry.
A report by Reuters claims they have issued a fine against former Credit Suisse chairman Urs Rohner for giving false information to the country’s financial watchdog in a spying scandal that led to the departure of the lender’s CEO in 2020, Swiss broadcaster SRF.
What is important to note is that The ministry sentenced Rohner to a suspended financial penalty and a fine of 24,840 Swiss francs ($28,227), according to SRF, in a criminal order dated October 20.
Moreover, the case relates to Credit Suisse’s 2019 surveillance scandal. The outlet claims that when it emerged that the bank had monitored former and current employees, including ex-wealth management executive Iqbal Khan.
Regarding this, SRF said the finance ministry found Rohner had ‘signed a 2019 response to Swiss financial supervisor FINMA’ that described Khan’s surveillance as an ‘isolated incident’, but a later investigation found seven surveillance operations were planned or carried out between 2016 and 2019.
At this time, Rohner has rejected the accusations and requested a court review, saying in a written statement to SRF that he had ‘never knowingly or deliberately’ provided false information to FINMA or any other authority.
Right now, the case is set to go before Switzerland’s criminal court, SRF said, with Rohner presumed innocent until a final judgment.
