The former Credit Suisse chairman of the board of directors Urs Rohner has been fined and given a suspended sentence by the Federal Department of Finance (FDF) for knowingly providing false information to the financial market regulator Finma. The fine amounts to 24,840 Swiss francs, and the suspended sentence comprises 144 daily rates of 690 Swiss francs each. The penalty order dated Oct. 20 is not yet legally binding. This is reported by SRF Investigativ and the online magazine Republik.

The background is Credit Suisse's surveillance scandal from 2019. Among other things, the bank had surveillance conducted on the then head of international wealth management, Iqbal Khan. After the scandal came to light, Finma asked CS for information about further surveillance assignments as well as substantiated complaints against then CEO Tidjane Thiam.

Rohner signed the bank's response to Finma on Oct. 25, 2019. In it, the surveillance of Khan was presented as an "isolated incident." According to the facts investigated by the FDF, it later emerged that a total of seven surveillance operations had been planned or carried out between 2016 and 2019. In four cases, external firms were brought in.

Material CEO connection deliberately concealed

According to the FDF, CS also concealed another material fact: a surveillance operation planned in 2016 involving a "non-employed third party outside Switzerland" was in fact the ex-husband of Thiam's partner. Rohner deliberately concealed the material CEO connection of this planned surveillance operation.

At the same time, the FDF notes that there is no indication Rohner had concrete knowledge of the further surveillance operations. However, there were sufficient indications pointing to additional surveillance actions. Rohner did not pursue these indications sufficiently.

Penalty order not accepted

Rohner rejects the allegations. During his tenure, he neither knowingly nor intentionally made false statements to Finma or any other authorities. Rather, in the fall of 2019, under great time pressure, he tried to gather all available facts and ensure a correct and complete response from the bank.

The former CS chairman has not accepted the penalty order and has requested judicial review. The case will therefore continue before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona.

Until a final decision is reached, Rohner is presumed innocent.