Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse has reportedly been carrying out physical surveillance of more employees than formerly revealed.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, two prior instances of surveillance were found by law firm Homburger.
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These instances were said to have taken place before the spying scandal that erupted last year, and involved the surveillance of its former wealth management head Iqbal Khan in the wake of his defection to rival UBS.
In October 2017, Credit Suisse had an employee in New York tailed outside work after it suspected the employee of misusing confidential data, stated the report citing people familiar with the matter.
The Swiss bank was reportedly worried that the data may have been used in a hedge fund’s proposal to Credit Suisse to break up its business.
According to the report, the employee was connected to one of the proposal’s backer Gaël de Boissard, who previously held a senior role at the Swiss bank.
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By GlobalDataHowever, Boissard was not tailed by the bank, revealed Homburger’s findings.
The second incident was said to have occurred in March 2018, when a sacked investment bank staff in Asia was put under surveillance.
According to Homburger, the employee had threatened co-workers while working at the bank. The colleagues had the apprehension that the employee might become violent.
The report does not name any of the employees concerned.
A Credit Suisse spokesperson said that the bank “does not condone the physical observation of its people and it is not part of Credit Suisse’s culture.”
Background
After the surveillance of Khan was brought into light, Credit Suisse conducted an internal probe into the matter.
An internal probe failed to unveil any evidence of Khan trying to poach Credit Suisse employees or clients to UBS, which was said to be the reason behind his surveillance.
The incident led to the ouster of Credit Suisse COO, who was held responsible for the operation. The probe absolved the bank’s then CEO Tidjane Thiam from his involvement in the issue, though he stepped down soon after and was replaced by Thomas Gottstein.
Khan filed a criminal complaint with the Zurich attorney’s office over the matter while Finma launched its own probe into the matter and appointed an independent auditor.
This May, Credit Suisse appealed to the highest court to review the lawyer appointed by Finma for looking into its spying scandal.
In September this year, Finma launched enforcement proceedings against the bank for the scandal.
Citing newspaper Sonntagszeitung, Bloomberg recently reported that the scandal may involve more employees than previously alleged.
