“Do we have any information on the target?” “I check restaurants and parking. You go to the spa. There is a lone man outside in the jacuzzi. It could be him.” “If he rents a rental car, he might go out through the underground parking lot, we might miss him.”
These exchanges worthy of an episode of OSS 117 are nevertheless very real, linked to a espionage affair which is pursuing the former boss of Credit Suisse, Tidjane Thiam. He had been cleared in a first proven case of surveillance against an executive, but a procedure is still open in the United States, reveals the “SonntagsZeitung”. He is in fact accused of having orchestrated the surveillance of his partner’s ex-husband by the bank’s services. A high-ranking banker herself, Marie-Soazic Geffroy was also allegedly monitored by her ex. The latter is seeking some $15 million in damages.
The Sunday newspaper obtained the exchanges of messages cited in the procedure, which show how the man had been followed. The objective, which emerges from an internal e-mail, is that of protecting the partner of the former CEO, and the reputation of the bank.
According to documents cited by the newspaper, the operation began in 2016 in Hong Kong, before being interrupted, because the mandated agent had warned Tidjane Thiam of the consequences in the event of discovery of these actions. “If he realizes that he is being monitored, he may be able to go back to Switzerland, and the link with Credit Suisse will be quickly made. Please take a moment to think about this,” he wrote.
But the operation resumed in 2017 at the Dolder Hotel in Zurich, during which the “spies” searched for the man for two days, in vain. Credit Suisse employees also allegedly attempted to collect information about him the same year.
Alerted by the publicity of the first surveillance cases affecting Credit Suisse, the man indicates that he carried out his own investigation and discovered that he and his daughter had been photographed and that his messages had been hacked. Enough to launch a lawsuit, even if these facts could not be linked with certainty to the bank.
Credit Suisse’s current owner, UBS, declined to comment. Tidjane Thiam also; he is currently devoting himself to the presidential campaign of Côte d’Ivoire, in which he wishes to run in 2025.
