Switzerland's highest court upheld restrictions for Falcon Private Bank's former top compliance officer in the wake of the 1MDB scandal.
The court upheld a two-year ban from holding a management role in the financial services industry for the former general counsel and compliance boss of Falcon. The ruling comes nearly four years after the Swiss private bank was heavily sanctioned by several regulators for its involvement in the $4.5 billion 1MDB graft scandal.
The banker can be held accountable for breaching anti-money laundering rules, the court ruled, thought it acknowledged extenuating circumstances: he had been pressured by his bosses as well as misled by the chairman of the Abu Dhabi-owned wealth manager at the time, Khadem al-Qubaisi.
Abu Dhabi Trial
The court found that neither is material to the Swiss banker's supervisory duties as Falcon's top compliance officer at the time. The Swiss lawyer has already «served» 298 days of the professional ban, meaning he has roughly 14 months to go before he can take a management role in Swiss banking.
Finma provided an unusually detailed catalogue of Falcon's 1MDB offenses when it sanctioned the bank four years ago. As for Al-Qubaisi, who previously ran one of Abu Dhabi’s largest sovereign wealth funds, he and Mohammed Badawy al Husseiny, another executive at the fund who sat on Falcon's board, were sentenced and fined last year, according to «The Wall Street Journal».
Falcon Struggles
Since then, the bank, which faces its third straight loss and remains under Finma's close scrutiny, has sought to reinvent itself as a crypto wealth manager. The most recent court ruling follows a long back-and-forth: the former Falcon executive had initially successfully overturned the restriction, which was imposed more than two years ago.
Swiss financial regulator Finma then appealed in order to impose the restrictions on the Swiss banker, who was formerly deputy to Falcon's operating chief until 2016, Tobias Unger. The supreme court ruling cannot be appealed.
