Swiss Prosecutors Target Ex-Credit Suisse Staffer in Mozambique Case
Swiss prosecutors have charged a former Credit Suisse employee with money laundering and accuse the bank — now part of UBS — of failing to stop the offense due to serious organizational lapses.
The «Mozambique scandal» has preoccupied the former Credit Suisse (CS) since 2016. It concerns loans totaling more than $2 billion that the bank issued in 2013 to three state-owned companies in Mozambique.
At the center of the indictment now filed by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is Credit Suisse’s termination of a business relationship. According to the OAG, this resulted in the outflow of allegedly illicit funds abroad without CS or its parent company filing a suspicious activity report with the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS), as required. This information was released in an OAG statement on Monday.
Charges against another former CS employee have been dropped.
Money Laundering And Aiding Bribery
The bank is additionally accused of organizational shortcomings. The OAG opened an initial criminal investigation in 2020. That investigation is currently being pursued against two individuals on suspicion of money laundering and aiding the bribery of foreign public officials.
In 2023, based on findings from that first investigation, a second criminal inquiry was opened. According to the OAG, this second inquiry has now concluded with the filing of the indictment on 25 November 2025.
Running Fee Landed in CS Accounts
The case concerns business dealings between CS and a company described as a consulting and wealth management firm. In spring 2016, funds totaling roughly $7.86 million were deposited into that company’s CS accounts, transferred by Mozambique’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.
These funds allegedly originated from a «running fee» agreed between the company and the Mozambican state-owned enterprises, paid for purported services connected to the loan transactions.
…and then flowed abroad
According to the indictment, however, the funds coming from Mozambique were obtained or facilitated through corruption, including the bribery of Mozambican officials and misconduct in public office. Shortly after the funds arrived, $7 million were transferred to bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates. The remaining funds also left the country.
The indictment is directed at a former CS compliance officer who allegedly played a leading role in conducting the internal review. Although, according to the indictment, she had multiple indications that the funds from Mozambique might be criminal in origin, she is said to have advised CS management and Credit Suisse Group not to file a report with MROS but instead to close the business relationship.
Suspicious Activity Report Only in 2019
CS did not file a money-laundering suspicious activity report with MROS until 2019. This occurred only after the US Department of Justice publicized its own criminal proceedings related to the Mozambique loan deals.
CS — and now UBS as its legal successor — is accused of having failed in 2016 to take all necessary and reasonable organizational measures to prevent the suspected money laundering. According to the indictment, there were significant deficiencies at the time in risk management, compliance, and internal directives related to anti–money laundering controls.
UBS Rejects OAG’s Conclusions
UBS appears poised to contest the charges. «We firmly reject the conclusions of the Office of the Attorney General and will vigorously defend our position,» a spokesperson said.
UBS has previously signaled that it has its own view of Credit Suisse’s legacy legal cases. In various proceedings, UBS lawyers have argued that criminal liability cannot simply be transferred to a legal successor through a merger — an argument the bank also made in the so-called Bulgaria-connection case involving Credit Suisse.
Case Closed on Procedural-Efficiency Grounds
The OAG has closed the criminal proceedings against another former CS employee through an order dated 25 November 2025. She was responsible for the bank’s compliance department during the relevant period and served on the executive board. She was convicted in March 2025 in a separate administrative criminal proceeding by the Federal Department of Finance (FDF). That conviction has been appealed to the Federal Criminal Court and is not yet final.
The OAG has now dropped its parallel case for reasons of procedural economy, since the allegations concerned largely the same facts.
