The Swiss bank dismissed its security chief for allegedly helping organize a spy job on then-top executive Iqbal Khan. It has brought in a former military police official to replace him.
Zurich-based Credit Suisse is hiring Beat Eberle as its top security official, Swiss outlet «Handelszeitung» (behind paywall, in German) reported on Thursday. Eberle replaces Remo Boccali, who was sacked in the wake of a surveillance scandal last September.
The security chief is the forgotten figure in a soap opera stacked with high-flyers: Boccali and Pierre-Olivier Bouée, who was also fired, were found to have coordinated a spy job on Iqbal Khan, after it surfaced that the Swiss private banker was defecting to UBS. The scandal ultimately cost CEO Tidjane Thiam his job, despite considerable shareholder opposition to his departure.
Military Career
Eberle is a 60-year-old Swiss law enforcement officer who has overseen security at the World Economic Forum, served as chief of Switzerland's military police, commanded Swisscoy troops in Kosovo, and worked in a United Nations mission in the Congo.
The army brigadier will oversee several dozen security and safety specialists at Credit Suisse, as well as coordinate when Credit Suisse executives are involved in international events. The spy scandal led to a criminal investigation by Zurich prosecutors, and Credit Suisse may face regulatory action from the affair.
