A high-ranking Credit Suisse banker in India accuses the Swiss bank as well as several of its top executives of governance failings. An isolated incident or the tip of an iceberg?
Credit Suisse may face a flood of suits in India, after a complaint by its former top executive in Pune, Ranjit Anand. The Swiss bank maintains a massive technology and operations center of 14,000 staff in the sprawling city in western India.
Bombay's High Court accepted the complaint, in which Anand accuses the Zurich-based wealth manager of fraud, harassment, and exploitation. The banker also claims he was wrongly dismissed.
Aiming at C-Suite
Anand is targeting both Credit Suisse itself as well as six top executives.
Anand worked for Credit Suisse for more than ten years, and in Pune, was responsible for the second-largest group of staff employed by the bank, after Switzerland. He claims the bank exploited him and pressured him, and confirmed his case against Credit Suisse to finews.com.
A spokesman for Credit Suisse said the bank rejects Anand's allegations as inaccurate. «We will vigorously defend the bank and the named Credit Suisse personnel against any legal action brought by him.»
Independent of Spygate
The Indian banker lodged his complaint before a Swiss spy scandal around Iqbal Khan, who ran the biggest piece of Credit Suisse's private bank last June, exploded in September. Civil complaints of the type Anand is pursuing are lodged via a «criminal writ petition,» meant to highlight allegedly criminal behavior of organizations.
They are made public if a court accepts the submission – as recently happened in Anand's case. According to the former managing director, his suit is the tip of the iceberg: he claims to know of other employees who are preparing similar complaints (Anand didn't provide evidence of other complaints).
More Suits Planned?
finews.com has learned or a long-standing contractor for Credit Suisse who is waiting for his petition against the bank to be admitted. The person accuses Credit Suisse of corruption, fraud, and violation of privacy.
He claims a host of upper-level Credit Suisse staff in India were let go after they raised governance issues. Several of them plan to compel the bank to address the alleged problems in court via a class action suit.
