The Swiss financial market regulator has sent a top white collar crime investigator to Credit Suisse headquarters to find out more about the spyscandal that rocked the bank late last year.
Thomas Werlen, a top white-collar-crime expert in Switzerland, will assist the Swiss financial market regulator (Finma) in its investigation of the spyscandal, according to a report by «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (behind paywall).
The lawyer is partner at U.S. law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan (Switzerland). He founded the Zurich branch of the Los Angeles-based firm in 2015, having previously worked as chief counsel for Novartis, the giant Swiss drugmaker.
Expert in Major International Cases
Werlen has been involved in several high-profile cases in his career, according to a report by Swiss business magazin «Bilanz». He represented football association Fifa at the U.S. justice department, helped in the investigation involving the 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal and assisted Brazil-based Odebrecht construction company in reaching a deal with the U.S. judiciary. The Zurich bureau is said to have generated record revenues for the law firm.
Now, Werlen will assist Finma with the Credit Suisse case that broke in the autumn of 2019. Finma aims to find out details about the shadowing of ex-executives Iqbal Khan and Peter Goerke. Credit Suisse itself had asked Homburger law firm to establish a report, which eventually led to the departure of Chief Operating Officer Pierre-Olivier Bouée as key responsible for the shadowing activities.
Key Departures at the Bank
CEO Tidjane Thiam in February also resigned from his position after the board of directors decided that his departure was necessary for the bank to reestablish its tarnished reputation.
Finma essentially wants to vet the controlling and corporate governance at Switzerland’s second-biggest bank and establish who had known about the investigation jobs ob Khan and Goerke. It also wants to know which means of communications had been utilized.
