Swiss prosecutors are reportedly sifting through Pierin Vincenz's expenses. Aduno, which the ex-Raiffeisen CEO also presided, is doing the same – and is proving a linchpin of the investigation.
Pierin Vincenz and his expenses: the former star Swiss banker who has been remanded in custody since March was known as a big spender. The former Raiffeisen CEO was generous with client meetings and business dinners, used luxury chauffeur services to get around, had no problem picking up bar tabs, and occasionally spent the night in a suite at the Park Hyatt, a luxury hotel a stone's throw from Zurich's Paradeplatz banking center.
Investigators are now probing whether Vincenz mixed his private and business tabs, and whether he generated high expenses at firms which he oversaw, such as payments firm Aduno.
Expense Review
Bruno Gehrig, the Swiss banking heavyweight who Raiffeisen appointed as a lead internal investigator in April, and a cadre of lawyers for white-collar law firm Homburger have stumbled on a series of Vincenz's expense reports. The expense claims – and the amounts reimbursed – were so prodigious that Gehrig and the lawyer team handed them over prosecutors in the criminal probe. Raiffeisen didn't comment.
But Vincenz's expense habits outside of Raiffeisen are also being probed, including Aduno Group, which the Swiss banker presided from 1999 to just two years ago. The Zurich-based cashless payments specialist, which was the first Vincenz-linked firm to lodge a criminal complaint (Raiffeisen quickly joined the criminal probe as a private complainant), has emerged as a linchpin in the probe.
A spokesman for Aduno told finews.com: «The Aduno Group is currently checking Pierin Vincenz's expense reports internally.»
Data Trove
In theory, Aduno has options to do so: the firm simply has to audit the claims filed by Vincenz, as well as review all payments booked on the banker's credit card.
In fact, Aduno and subsidiary Viseca Card Services are sitting on a trove of payments data. The raw data could allow investigators to ascertain precisely when, where, for what, and in what amount a cardholder made payments.
Aduno is also likely to be sitting on credit card data about Vincenz's payment habits at Raiffeisen as well: the bank used Aduno as a card issuer. Vincenz, as the long-standing CEO of the bank, was almost certainly issued a company credit card.
Bad Faith Dealings
The card issuer has been at the heart of the investigation so far: Aduno lodged the criminal complaint against former CEO Beat Stocker and Vincenz over bad faith dealings over the purchase in 2007 of Commtrain. Both Vincenz and Stocker had held shares in the rival payments company for two years before the deal was forged.
Even if Aduno holds the key to reams of personal data on Vincenz, privacy rules prohibit the firm from reviewing anything but expenses. If the company wants to look at other credit card data – such as any Raiffeisen client cards – it would have to seek authority from prosecutors.
There is no indication that Aduno has done so. Neither the company nor the investigating prosecutor commented.
