For two years, Paul Morjanoff tirelessly sent email after email detailing the now-collapsed bank’s misdeeds to the Swiss government. In an interview with finews.asia, he explains why. 

The plight of a whistleblower is a difficult one - particularly when they are going up against what was once one of the world’s largest financial institutions.

At first, no one takes you seriously, and when they do, it is often too late as the damage is done.

That is much the predicament former multi-disciplinary research scientist Dr. Paul Morjanoff and his FRCS (Financial Recovery and Consulting Services) team based in Australia have faced in connection with the collapse of Credit Suisse. 

Detailed Emails

In the two years before the bank’s demise, he sent 33 emails to every member of the Swiss parliament, as well as to other national governments, the bank’s shareholders, and the bank’s management. 

In them, he detailed the alleged misdeeds of what was once the country’s second-largest bank. He even went so far as to predict the eventual consequences.

With the benefit of hindsight, Morjanoff seems prescient, although, when asked, he freely proffers that he rarely caught anyone’s full attention at the time, even as the situation progressively deteriorated.

Now that Credit Suisse has been forcibly shunted into the arms of UBS by the Swiss government, finews.asia decided to catch up with him and find out whether he thought he had accomplished what he had set out to do.

Dr. Morjanoff, how did this all start in connection with Credit Suisse?

About 20 years ago, I invested money with them in the US and a now-defunct third party. I lost it and tried getting it back, but I was stonewalled at pretty much every juncture.

Is that when you became a whistleblower?

I went to Zurich but didn’t make much progress. I also found out that there were many others who had suffered similar losses. 

In the meantime, I maintain that I have become one of the world experts on Credit Suisse. I have spoken to hundreds of lawyers and about two years ago, I started notifying the Swiss and Norwegian parliaments, but I got very little action back. They did nothing and the bank went down exactly as predicted. In most cases, we were involved behind the scenes and were able to predict the outcome better than the experts.

Why Norway?

The Norwegian sovereign investment fund owned Credit Suisse shares and needed to provide evidence of irreproachable conduct. 

I wrote to them and the government, and all the bank’s large shareholders, warning them about the consequences of approving management AGM proposals for several years, particularly the discharge of the board and senior management.

I believed they started to worry about it after I wrote to them (editor’s note: the Norwegian fund subsequently indicated it would vote against the discharge at the 2023 AGM).

Does that mean your job is now over?

I have stuck with it, and I am staying with it until we get justice. Some victims have lost a great deal, including, for example, their life savings. 

I will continue to send messages to the Swiss and US authorities. Switzerland’s parliament has announced the 14 members of a special commission that will look into Credit Suisse’s collapse. I will keep hammering them to see if they respond.

Does that also mean you will start sending messages to UBS management?

Yes. Credit Suisse’s legal obligations do not disappear, they are simply inherited by UBS.