ZURICH, Feb 7 — Credit Suisse will face charges in a Swiss court today of allowing an alleged Bulgarian cocaine trafficking gang to launder millions of euros, some of it stuffed into suitcases.
The case has attracted intense interest in Switzerland, where it is seen as a test for a potentially tougher stance by prosecutors against the country’s banks. Banev, who does not face charges in Switzerland, was convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 2017 and then in Bulgaria in 2018 for being part of a criminal organisation active in trafficking tonnes of cocaine from Latin America.
Prosecutors allege the gang used so-called smurfing, where a large sum of money is broken down into smaller amounts which are below the anti-money laundering alert threshold, to launder money, putting millions of euros in small-value bills into safety deposit boxes and later transferring them into accounts.
Credit Suisse disputes the illegal origin of the money, a source familiar with its thinking told Reuters, saying that Banev and his circle operated legitimate businesses in construction, leasing and hotels.