The chairman of Credit Suisse skipped out on COVID-19 quarantine a second time while traveling, an investigation reportedly found.
An internal probe into António Horta-Osório sparked by the Credit Suisse chairman's breaking of Swiss rules found a second, similar incident. The 57-year-old broke rules in Britain as well in July when he attended Wimbledon, «Reuters» reported overnight, citing two sources.
The U.K.'s COVID-19 rules at the time would have required the Portuguese-British banker to adhere to a ten-day quarantine. Instead, he watched Novak Djokovic beat Matteo Berrettini in four sets in the men's final of the storied British tennis tournament.
Undermines Agenda
The probe, reported exclusively by finews.com on Wednesday, undermines the reform agenda Horta-Osório set out for the battered Swiss bank eight months ago. Credit Suisse has its hands full of damage control over Greensill as well as a slew of other painful scandals.
Led by Credit Suisse’s top lawyer Romeo Cerutti, the probe's findings were passed before Christmas to the audit committee, which is overseen by Richard Meddings, the newswire reported. The Swiss bank will now decide whether any further action is required.
Quarantine Vs Spying
The probe into Horta-Osório represents a contrast from «spygate,» the most recent scandal involving Credit Suisse top executives and moral norms in business. Then, Horta-Osório's predecessor Urs Rohner argued that surveillance of a former top executive was an isolated incident.
It later emerged that Credit Suisse planned seven such spy operations from 2016 and 2019 and followed through on most of them. The quarantine probe likely represents a bid to come clean proactively, as opposed to facing a months-long drip feed of revelations through press.
