A few days ago information security specialists reported that financial services company Credit Suisse was in the midst of a scandal involving allegations of corporate espionage against UBS, its main competitor. The situation has worsened due to recent reports on the suicide of a contractor involved in this cybercriminal activity scandal.
This contractor acted as an intermediary between
Credit Suisse and private investigators firm Investigo. This firm would have
been hired to monitor the activities of Iqbal Khan, the company’s former head
of wealth management, as mentioned by Financial
Times.
Credit Suisse began spying Khan a short time
ago fearing that their former employee might “steal” customers from
the company to take them to UBS, where he has just started his new job. The
Swiss firm has faced a lot of pressure since this espionage activity was
revealed, as mentioned by information security specialists.
When this espionage
scandal became public, Pierre-Olivier Bouée, the company’s chief operating
officer, filed his resignation with the company’s board of directors. Remo
Boccali, the bank’s head of information security, also quit his job. Urs
Rohner, president of Credit Suisse, said: “It was a mistake to undertake
this surveillance campaign; this measure does not represent our values.”
Khan filed a lawsuit with Swiss prosecutors for
the surveillance activities to which he was subjected. In a subsequent
statement to the media, the bank’s president mentioned that, according to an
investigation he himself requested from the private firm Homburger, Bouée acted
alone in this case, so Tidjane Thiam, CEO of Credit Suisse, is not related to
this campaign.
However, a statement from the prosecutor’s
office mentions that other possible crimes against Iqubal Khan are still being
investigated. As mentioned, the relationship between Thiam and Khan was always
very strained, stemming from labor disputes and some environmental disputes in the
wealthy Swiss neighborhood where they both live, so authorities have not
removed their eye away from Thiam.
Experts mention that this scandal has brought
to the ground the reputation of the financial institution: “I would like
to apologize to our shareholders, our employees and especially to Iqbal Khan
and all his family,” Rohner says. On the other hand, one of Credit
Suisse’s shareholders anonymously stated: “A person decided to take his
life, it is clear that this campaign was wrong from the beginning. Now all that’s
left is to wait for prosecutors to start making decisions.”
In addition, Rohner stated that, although it is
not his intention to pre-empt the official investigation, the investigation by
the Homburger firm has already concluded that Thiam was not aware of these
activities: “We categorically reject any assertion that question the
integrity of our CEO,” concluded the president of Credit Suisse.
Local media reports mention that although Khan
had personal relationships with some of his former collaborators, investigators
found no evidence that Khan had tried to bring Credit Suisse clients to UBS.
Although Homburger researchers have already
conducted a dozen interviews with various employees of Credit Suisse and
Investigo, information security specialists at the International Institute of Cyber
Security (IICS) consider that relevant information that could be obtained from
the conversations between Bouée and Boccali through Therma, a messaging
application developed by third parties used within the company, could be useful
during the prosecutors’ investigation.
