Bambos Tsiattalou comments on Swiss banking spying scandal

Partner Bambos Tsiattalou comments on the news that Credit Suisse COO, Pierre-Olivier Bouee, has resigned over the spying scandal.

Bambos’ comments were published in Bloomberg, Fortune, Al Jazeera, Luxembourg Times, Gulf Times, MENAFN, BNN Bloomberg, BloombergQuint and SwissInfo.ch, 1 October 2019 and The Star (Malaysia), 2 October 2019.

“Credit Suisse Group AG exonerated Chief Executive Officer, Tidjane Thiam, as one of his key allies took the fall for a corporate spying scandal that’s shaken Zurich’s financial elite.

Chief Operating Officer Pierre-Olivier Bouee, who worked as the CEO’s chief lieutenant at three companies for more than 10 years, stepped down after ordering detectives to shadow former wealth-management head Iqbal Khan to ensure he didn’t poach clients and brokers for his new post at UBS Group AG.

“The COO said that he alone, in order to protect the interests of the bank, decided to initiate the observation of Iqbal Khan,” the bank said, adding that there was no evidence that Thiam or the board new about his actions.

“Whilst it is understandable that companies hire third parties to monitor employees, especially when acting in a highly competitive market and there has been a breakdown in the relationship, it is unacceptable to infringe on the private lives of individuals,” said Bambos Tsiattalou, a criminal defence lawyer at Stokoe Partnership. “Those with knowledge of activities of this nature should be held accountable for any wrongdoing exposed.””