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Pierin Vincenz was a bulwark of Swiss banking for more than 30 years. His fall from grace shows how the industry’s fraternal ties are no longer binding.

The renowned banker has all but vanished from Switzerland’s finance industry, but he is not forgotten: Pierin Vincenz. The long-standing former Raiffeisen boss was hit with criminal complaints by two of his ex-employers, for allegedly acting in bad faith.

The banker’s alleged wrong-doing was unwittingly brought to light by a small cashless payments firm, Aduno, that Vincenz was instrumental in founding 19 years ago with a collective of Swiss retail banks.

He Took on Industry Titans

Vincenz is well-known to a wider Swiss public: he frequently appeared at society events, granted interviews to newspapers and magazines, and wasn’t afraid to take on industry titans like UBS, where he began his career.

Until recently, it was unthinkable that a banker of Vincenz’s standing could be criminally investigated. Prosecutions of bankers in Switzerland are rare, and convictions are even scarcer: the last was eight years ago, when Swiss Life’s former finance chief, Dominique Morax, was convicted of stock manipulation.

Series of Unlinked Events

Unlike in the Morax case, where a stock market crash led to massive losses and revealed the wrong-doing, Vincenz’s criminal dilemma has more to do with a series of unlinked events last year. Though separate, together they formed a pattern which Vincenz eventually was no longer able to outrun.

The least toothy of Vincenz’s new enemies is Raiffeisen, which ordered three separate external reviews in 2016 – none of which turned up anything suspicious, the bank said. Nevertheless, CEO Patrik Gisel quickly began distancing himself from his predecessor and mentor, culminating in the bank’s criminal complaint against Vincenz.

Focus on a Private Equity Vehicle

For his part, the former CEO said he was shocked at the probe, denied the accusations, and said he had always pursued the interests of the firms he had worked for.

Prosecutors are focusing on Investnet, a private equity vehicle for small firms which Vincenz bought a stake in for Raiffeisen. After he left he bank, Vincenz also bought a stake in Investnet.

At Aduno, where Vincenz was chairman for 19 years, investigators accuse him of blurring the lines of personal investments and those for Raiffeisen on two separate takeovers that he was personally invested in as well as on behalf of Raiffeisen.