ZURICH, May 19 (Reuters) - Switzerland on Tuesday opened a money-laundering trial linked to Mozambique's "tuna bond" scandal, focusing on a former Credit Suisse compliance officer after the responsibility of more senior bankers could not be established.
Loans arranged by the lender helped push the African country into bankruptcy a decade ago, years before Credit Suisse itself was hit by crisis and was eventually bought by UBS in a state-engineered emergency takeover in 2023.
Here are some details:
o The compliance officer is accused of money laundering for arranging the transfer of more than 600,000 Swiss francs ($764,000) of criminal origin to Abu Dhabi in 2016, frustrating efforts to locate or confiscate the funds.
o The bank did not file a suspicious activity report with Switzerland's financial crime unit at the time, doing so only in 2019 after details of the scandal emerged in U.S. criminal proceedings, according to the indictment.
o While Credit Suisse's internal money-laundering investigation had top management attention, executive board members inadequately instructed and supervised compliance staff, the indictment added. Prosecutors could not attribute responsibility for this to an individual, it said.
o Switzerland's Criminal Court in April discontinued proceedings against UBS over the Mozambique scandal, saying Credit Suisse ceased to exist as a criminal-law entity with the 2023 merger, in a decision that can be appealed.
o The Swiss finance ministry last year fined Lara Warner, Credit Suisse's former compliance chief in relation to the Mozambique case, a decision which she has challenged.
($1 = 0.7852 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Ariane Luthi. Editing by Mark Potter)
