The UBS bank finds itself in the dock of the Federal Criminal Court on Tuesday for an appeal trial. Following the takeover of Credit Suisse, it is UBS which appears for aggravated money laundering. A criminal trial in public is very rare for a bank in Switzerland, notes criminal law professor Katia Villard at Forum.
At the end of June 2022, Credit Suisse was sentenced at first instance to a firm fine of 2 million francs and to pay a compensatory debt of 19 million corresponding to the amounts which escaped the receivership due to its failures. The bank was convicted of aggravated money laundering for having collected funds from the clan of Evelin Banev, a member of the Bulgarian mafia.
>> Also read: Maximum fine required against Credit Suisse for money laundering
This is only the second time that a Swiss bank has appeared before the Federal Criminal Court after Falcon in December 2021 (Editor’s note: an acquittal was finally pronounced in 2023). “But this is the first time that a major bank finds itself in the dock as part of a public trial,” Katia Villard, associate professor at the Department of Criminal Law at the University of Geneva.
This procedure allows “much more transparency than, for example, a criminal order”, which is a kind of agreement between the federal prosecutor’s office and a company. The trial “has a much stronger media resonance”, adds Katia Villard.
Classification of the procedure rejected
UBS recently attempted to have the proceedings concerning it dismissed. The establishment argued that the absorption by merger of Credit Suisse should have the same consequences as the death of a natural person. In other words, the disappearance of number 2 in the sector should lead to the extinction of the criminal action.
In a decision rendered in mid-August 2024, the Court of Appeal of the Federal Criminal Court rejected this interpretation. She stressed that the merger contract provided not only for the takeover of the capital under management, personnel and premises of Credit Suisse but also of its “position in any legal, arbitral and administrative proceedings”.
A decision which does not surprise Katia Villard, who notes that “the parallel between natural and legal persons in matters of disappearance in the broad sense is obviously limited”.
Millions in compensating claims
UBS faces a fine of up to 5 million francs. But “the real sanction is, in reality, the possible confiscation of compensatory debts, supposed to be equal to the illicit gains which were generated by the offense attributed to him,” concludes Katia Villard.
At first instance, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPC) requested against the bank the maximum fine of 5 million provided for by law and compensatory claims totaling 41 million.
Sujet radio: Mehmet Gultas
Web adaptation: Raphaël Dubois with ats
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