The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (“OAG”) recently announced that Banque J. Safra Sarasin SA (“Banque Safra”) and one of its former relationship managers was recently convicted by summary penalty order for engaging in aggravated money laundering between November 2011 and approximately May 2014. Following the conviction, the Bank was sentenced to pay a fine of 3.5 million Swiss francs ($4.3 million), and the unnamed former employee was sentenced to a six month custodial sentence with a two-year period of probation. According to the OAG, the conviction was related to “Lava Jato,” an international bribery and corruption case involving the Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras, which occurred mainly in Brazil and involved certain members of Brazil’s federal government. The OAG also reported that it decided not to order a compensatory claim in this case, in light of Banque Safra’s payment of a CHF 16 million settlement to Petrobras, the private claimant in these proceedings.
According to OAG investigators who launched an investigation into Banque Safra in 2018, certain clients acquired by the former relationship manager while working for Banque Safra were involved “Lava Jato,” including several accounts opened at Banque Safra that were allegedly used to receive or transfer corrupt payments intended for certain senior Petrobras executives. OAG investigators also reported that anti-money laundering deficiencies at Banque Safra enabled the processing of approximately $42.5 million in aggravated money laundering transfers as well as an additional $28.5 million in transactions that the Bank executed but were ultimately refused by the recipient banks. The former relationship manager, while working at another Swiss bank between November 2011 and July 2014, also allegedly engaged in actions intended to prevent the identification and seizure of assets connected to the bribery of foreign public officials.