Credit Suisse settles spy case with former star banker

ZURICH, July 25 (Reuters) – Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) has reached an out-of-court settlement with former star banker Iqbal Khan over allegations of espionage which led to the CEO’s resignation Tidjane Thiam, spokesperson for The Swiss bank said Sunday.

“Everyone involved has agreed to resolve the issue and this case is now closed,” said Simone Meier, confirming information published in the Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag.

A spokesperson for Khan said his client was unwilling to comment. UBS (UBSG.S), where Khan is now co-chairman of global wealth management, declined to comment.

The deal, details of which were not disclosed, ends a dispute that rocked the normally calm world of Swiss banking when allegations of corporate espionage involving Credit Suisse emerged in September 2019.

The case became public when Khan, after defecting from UBS, confronted a private investigator who was following him and his wife through Zurich.

What Credit Suisse initially described as a dishonest spy case led by then COO Pierre-Olivier Bouee has broadened as details have emerged of other surveillance cases. .

In addition to the departures of Bouee and Thiam, a private detective who organized the surveillance committed suicide after the revelation of the case.

NZZ am Sonntag said the settlement would result in the withdrawal of complaints filed by Khan against the bank and private investigators.

“Investigations related to criminal charges will be dropped,” Erich Wenzinger, spokesperson for the Zurich Canton Public Prosecutor’s Office, told the newspaper.

Last year, Swiss financial markets FINMA’s execution proceedings against Credit Suisse shares were still ongoing, a spokesperson said. He declined to comment on the length of the process, which began last September.

(This story is corrected to remove the reference to criminal complaints in paragraph 8)

Reporting by John Revill, additional reporting by Oliver Hirt; Editing by Mark Potter and Edmund Blair

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