Credit Suisse Takes Fight Over Spy Investigator to Top Court (2)

Credit Suisse Group AG has asked the Swiss Supreme Court to review whether the lawyer leading a probe into a spy scandal should be removed because of an alleged conflict of interest.

The bank is appealing an April decision by Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court that tossed out claims that Thomas Werlen should be taken off the probe because his law firm has opposed Credit Suisse in some cases. Werlen, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, had been appointed to lead financial regulator Finma’s probe in March.

“Quinn Emanuel does not meet the legal requirement of independence because it is engaged in numerous legal proceedings against the bank,” Zurich-based Credit Suisse said in a statement Friday. The bank said it will continue to cooperate with the probe pending the outcome of its appeal.

Switzerland’s second biggest bank continues to be dogged by the scandal that erupted last year after it spied on star banker Iqbal Khan who was leaving for rival UBS Group AG. Later in 2019, it emerged that Credit Suisse’s human resources chief Peter Goerke had been monitored, and a former U.S. executive also said she had been followed.

Finma said in a statement that in general it “attaches great importance to the question of independence when selecting” investigators.

A spokesman for Quinn Emanuel declined to comment.

Credit Suisse had argued that Werlen’s independence was compromised because Quinn Emanuel represented the bank’s opponents, including Vitaly Malkin. The wealthy Russian was one of the victims of Patrice Lescaudron, an ex-Credit Suisse banker convicted of taking hundreds of millions from clients’ accounts.

But the Federal Administrative Court in April dismissed the bank’s argument, pointing out that Werlen tried to distance himself from his firm in several ways, including communicating with Credit Suisse by hand-delivered letters instead of using the law firm’s email network.

(Adds Finma comment in fifth paragraph)

To contact the reporters on this story:
Hugo Miller in Geneva at hugomiller@bloomberg.net;
Marion Halftermeyer in Zurich at mhalftermeye@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net

Ross Larsen

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