The Swiss banking regulator is looking into allegations of money laundering at private bank Julius Baer. Once more, the origin of the money lies in South America.
A new suspicion concerning a money-laundering offence is troubling Julius Baer, the Zurich-based private bank. Finma, the Swiss banking regulator, has launched a so-called enforcement procedure against the bank, according to a report by «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» on Wednesday (behind paywall).
The suspicion focuses on a well-known businessman from Argentina, who is said to have made several capital market transactions worth more than 50 million Swiss francs ($52.9 million) between 2007 and 2016, using front companies for the purpose. He is said to have moved money out of his firm using fake bills and to have shifted the money through several accounts at Julius Baer. A spokesman for the bank confirmed that Finma was undertaking a procedure.
Finma Reprimand
Staff at Julius Baer detected the less-than-transparent transactions in 2016 and the bank closed the accounts after an investigation, the newspaper report said. However, Julius Baer did not inform the money-laundering reporting office of the case and the board committee had received more than some general indications about the case.
The case surfaces only a few months after Finma had rebuked the bank for grave deficiencies in tackling money laundering. Julius Baer had received assets from suspected corruption cases that were linked to Venezuela’s state-owned petrol firm PDVSA and the football world governing board FIFA. Finma told Julius Baer in February to put its house in order and prevented it from making any major or complex acquisitions.
