London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Oct 18, 2025

Credit Suisse Was Alerted to Banker’s Misconduct Years Before Charges

Credit Suisse Was Alerted to Banker’s Misconduct Years Before Charges

Credit Suisse Group AG overlooked red flags for years while a rogue private banker stole from billionaire clients, according to a report by a law firm for Switzerland’s financial regulator.

The private banker, Patrice Lescaudron, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2018 for fraud and forgery. He admitted cutting and pasting client signatures to divert money and make stock bets without their knowledge, causing more than $150 million in losses, according to the Geneva criminal court.

The regulator, Finma, publicly censured Credit Suisse in 2018 for inadequately supervising and disciplining Mr. Lescaudron as a top earner, and said he had repeatedly broken internal rules, but it revealed little else about the bank’s actions in the matter. Credit Suisse said it discovered Mr. Lescaudron’s fraud in September 2015 when a stock he had bought for clients crashed.

However, the report, commissioned by Finma in 2016 and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, found Mr. Lescaudron’s activities triggered hundreds of alerts in the bank that weren’t fully probed in the 2009-15 period studied. In addition, around a dozen executives or managers in Credit Suisse’s private bank knew Mr. Lescaudron was repeatedly breaking rules but turned a blind eye, proposed lenient punishment for his misconduct or otherwise glossed over the issues because he brought in around $25 million in revenue a year, the report found.

It said Mr. Lescaudron’s “disregard of internal directives and guidelines, the inadequate safeguarding of client documentation as well as unauthorized settlements of client transactions had been known to the bank since June 2011.”

The report found the irregularities were analyzed and escalated to a certain extent, but not enough. “None of the parties involved felt responsible for conclusively analyzing the already known as well as the resulting questions and drawing the necessary conclusions,” it said.

A business-risk manager who reported some of the incidents to superiors told law-firm investigators that he had feared further escalation would be seen as disloyal or that he would lose his job, according to the report.

Credit Suisse lost a bid last year in Switzerland’s Supreme Court to prevent the 272-page report by Swiss law firm Geissbühler Weber & Partner from being accessed by Geneva prosecutors still investigating the bank over the matter.

According to the report, the bank fired two executives after its own investigations into the fraud, and three more got written sanctions in their employment files.

A Credit Suisse spokesman said the report was part of the early stages of the review Finma concluded in 2018. It said the review “did not reveal any facts that would support the criminal complaints against Credit Suisse.” After Finma’s 2018 rebuke, Credit Suisse said it had improved its systems and added hundreds more compliance staff.

Mr. Lescaudron served a two-year pretrial detention and was released in 2019. He killed himself last year.

Finma declined to comment. The law firm said it couldn’t comment. The Geneva prosecutor’s office declined to comment on its investigation. A lawyer for Mr. Lescaudron’s family declined to comment.

The Journal reviewed a copy of the law firm’s April 2017 report obtained by some former clients of Mr. Lescaudron who formed a group called CS Victims. The former clients include Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire former prime minister of Georgia who is suing Credit Suisse in Singapore and Bermuda for around $800 million, alleging breach of trust. Credit Suisse is contesting Mr. Ivanishvili’s claims and denies any wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for CS Victims said the report shows Credit Suisse ignored alerts and warnings and had multiple opportunities to prevent Mr. Lescaudron’s crimes but chose not to. The spokesperson said the bank “must now accept responsibility and compensate the clients without delay.”

The law firm’s report said it didn’t find misconduct by Credit Suisse employees executing Mr. Lescaudron’s falsified orders. But it said the fact the orders could be falsified for so long without anyone noticing showed weaknesses in the bank’s antifraud measures.

The high-profile case is among several controversies that have bruised Credit Suisse’s standing with shareholders and the global rich who expect it to be a fortress for their money. Finma started enforcement proceedings in September over the bank’s handling of employee surveillance after a spying scandal, and Swiss federal prosecutors charged it with failing to prevent money laundering through the bank by a Bulgarian criminal organization and an employee more than a decade ago.

In January, Credit Suisse said it would post a fourth-quarter 2020 loss because of an $850 million legal charge for toxic security sales.

Credit Suisse said it was cooperating with Finma in the spying enforcement proceedings and would incorporate lessons learned. It denies the allegations in the federal criminal charges.

Chief Executive Thomas Gottstein said in December the bank would be more disciplined to avoid future litigation.

Mr. Lescaudron joined Credit Suisse in 2004 after working for a cosmetics company in Russia and as an auditor. He hadn’t worked in banking but swiftly became one of the bank’s top revenue producers as a handler to Russian and post-Soviet state billionaires.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
×