The head of compliance at Liechtenstein's LGT is leaving, finews.com can reveal. His sudden departure comes shortly after his previous bank was sanctioned for its dealing in Venezuelan corruption.
Johannes Pfister (pictured left), head of compliance at Liechtenstein-based LGT, is stepping down, a spokesman told finews.com. «Johannes Pfister has resigned for personal reasons not related to his role with LGT,» he said.
His departure is sudden and immediate. «He is no longer working at LGT,» the spokesman added. A spokesman for Pfister didn't comment.
The move comes shortly after finews.com inquired into his professional past. Pfister oversaw compliance at Banca Credinvest until 2014, according to two sources. He was dismissed by the bank in autumn of 2014, Credinvest's lawyer, Fulvio Pelli, told finews.com.
Finma Sanction
Credinvest surfaced last week as the third bank to be sanctioned by Switzerland's financial regulator Finma. The Lugano-based private bank's shareholders include Alejandro Betancourt and, until shortly after he was charged with money laundering in the U.S. in 2018, Francisco Convit, as finews.com reported on Thursday.
finews.com has no indication Pfister was directly involved in Credinvest's PDVSA scandal. Finma said it found evidence of lapses at the Swiss bank from 2013 until 2017 – which includes one year that Pfister oversaw the compliance department. His resignation indicates LGT lost trust in him after the Credinvest affair surfaced publicly two weeks ago.
Swiss Bolichico Banks
The duo – Betancourt and Convit – belongs to a crop of well-connected, younger businessmen who grew rich under the regime of Hugo Chavez. Dozens of Swiss and Liechtenstein banks catered to the «bolichicos,» including Julius Baer. Credit Suisse was also sanctioned, in 2018, for delinquency in fighting PDVSA graft money in its accounts.
Pfister's departure underpins the symbolism of the scandal for Swiss and Liechtenstein wealth managers – and Credinvest represents a tiny puzzle piece in the $1.5 trillion that «infodio» estimates disappeared from PDVSA’s coffers between 2002 and 2014. The website is devoted to chronicling the graft at Venezuela’s state-controlled oil and gas firm.
Recent Promotion At LGT
Pfister lists his occupation from 2011 until 2015 as a partner for legal and compliance at an unnamed «new Swiss banking project» in Zurich and in Lugano, in his online professional profile. It describes him as «a forward looking (sic) commercially aware and professionally qualified compliance expert with 20 years of industry experience».
He joined LGT as head of financial crime compliance in June of 2015, one month after Credinvest sacked him. This May, he was promoted to the Vaduz-based bank's overall head of compliance, according to the profile.
