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Credit Suisse scandal shakes Zurich’s elite
- equalunique 7y agoDoes this have any connection to the "Spygate"[0] story in the US? [0] http://archive.is/PxYXO http://archive.is/PxYXO * The facts of this story are still widely disputed beyond what the Wikipedia article shows.
- greyfox 7y agoDoes not appear to at a light skim thru, just may happen to have the same name...
- uncoder0 7y agoIt does not appear to be related. As a side note calling the US Spygate a 'conspiracy theory' on wiki seems a bit disingenuous. It'll all come out eventually and be interesting to see how history views those events... 'OCONUS lures', foreign intel collusion, information laundering through intel (push & pull) and all. It seems very fishy, looking forward to the release of the facts. From my rather deep research I'd put it more in the plausible but, unverified category rather than full blown 'false conspiracy theory'.
- equalunique 7y agoI agree that the article doesn't reflect the reality of the situation. One must understand that the Wikipedia acticle's content is controlled by gatekeeping-editors who collectively agree on what they want it to say. Trying to change the narrative there is an uphill, literally rigged battle. I am also suspicious that reporting on this new "spygate" story might be an attempt to muddy the SEO waters.
- akhilcacharya 7y agoIt's a subset of the "Deep State" conspiracy theory, so it deserves them moniker. I remember when we had a president that wasn't a conspiracy theorist.
- creddit 7y agoAny chance you can expound on “your rather deep research”? So far, my research, like Trump’s tweets, have surfaced no evidence.
- exoque 7y agoNo, this is about an ex-employee credit suisse spied on.
- equalunique 7y agoThis behavior does not seem like something I would put beneath any large financial institution. The large sums of money at stake for them make the collateral/fallout of these types of scandals small in comparison.
- oarsinsync 7y agoExcept in the context of Switzerland, and the Swiss banking / Zurich bubble specifically, this is absolutely a major scandal. What was once a 'pristine' banking organisation that upheld the highest standards and ideals (at least, in the private banking sector) is now significantly tarnished. This isn't going to make mainstream press headlines, but I don't think this is going to go away anytime soon.
- ggambetta 7y ago> the contractor who acted as a middle man between Credit Suisse and a private investigation firm took his own life. Damn. I wonder whether there was any foul play involved, or just too much pressure to handle.
- markus_zhang 7y agoCommon sense says there is usually a LOT of foul play among high ranking banking officials.
- Gibbon1 7y agoSeriously there is some sort of amnesia effect going on. The rate that banking execs get in trouble closely matches mafia families.
- markus_zhang 7y agoAlso their suicide and accidental death rate...
- rasz 7y agoI highly recommend "The International" 2009, inspired by true events (BCCI scandal).
- hos234 7y ago"It’s not just that power shifts from one country to another, from one political party to another, from one business model to another, it’s this: Power is decaying" - Moises Naim [The End of Power] The book basically says, it is becoming easier to get power, harder to use it to control others and harder to keep it once you have it.
- devoply 7y agoWell when America vacuums up power if you are a European nation without any ammo you better watch out.
- debatem1 7y agoAre you advocating for remilitarizing Germany, an American invasion of Europe, or a second amendment right to Hoovers? In any event, definitely don't vacuum up ammo. It's bad for the vacuum at a minimum.
- iagovar 7y agoHe's saying that we're too use to kill each other in Europe, and we need some external power as middleman to keep heads cool, which is true. Just before the Ukranian war started I thought another war in Europe was nearly impossible. And here we are.
- 7y ago
- ElonMuskrat 7y agoCredit Suisse's website should display a counter with the heading: "Days since last Credit Suisse scandal".
- FabHK 7y agoMatt Levine had written about it before in his excellent Money Stuff column on Bloomberg: > > [Thiam] was hosting a new year’s drinks party. > > Among his 60 or so guests were many locals from the Zurich suburb of Herrliberg, along with a clutch of top Credit Suisse executives and his new neighbors -- Iqbal Khan, the bank’s wealth-management chief, and his wife. > > Before long, it all went wrong. A remark by Khan to Thiam’s partner set off a bitter feud between the two alpha males. The guest had insulted the state of the garden, according to a person who was there. Later, Thiam tapped Khan on the shoulder and asked for a word. The two went downstairs and argued before later resurfacing. > “A bitter feud between the two alpha males” over the state of Thiam’s garden, I love it, investment banking is the best. For a while, some people thought that this scandal might even take down Thiam, and I can’t imagine a better reason for losing the high-profile and lucrative top job at a global bank than “I had to defend the honor of my garden.” https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2019-09-23/money-stuff-we-wants-a-new-boss https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2019-09-23/mon... https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-02/the-trades-will-be-free-now https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-02/the-tr...
- b0tch7 7y agoMatt Levine is the man.
- lostmsu 7y agoSkimming though the article did not explain what the scandal is about.
- yborg 7y agoThe CEO of Credit Suisse was accused of hiring an investigator to follow around a former executive who went to rival UBS. The "scandal" is that Swiss bankers are supposed to be too Swiss to do such things. The irony is that neither the CEO nor the executive are actually Swiss because high finance these days knows no nation.
- thecopy 7y agoThe COO got fired as well.
- pw6hv 7y agoActually, to my knowledge, the COO is the only one that got fired. The narrative says that he hired the detectives by its own initiative, without informing the CEO or any other members of the board.
- emeidi 7y agoIqbal Khan is Swiss
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- m0zg 7y agoThe op meant "culturally Swiss", which is clearly not the case based on his behavior. It's not enough to just be born in a country to be considered culturally similar.
- esoterica 7y agoAre you suggesting that “culturally Swiss” people never engage in inappropriate behavior, unlike people from “other cultures”? Why not end the dog whistling and say what you’re thinking out loud?
- kenneth 7y agoAdditionally, this article has a lot more background on the scandal: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-01/thiam-and-khan-fought-at-a-party-it-only-got-worse-from-there https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-01/thiam-and...
- objektif 7y agoIf anyone is curious about why they fought in the first place, apart from work rivalry, I came across an article that explains. It is because Khan bought the house next to Thiam and leveled it. Took his sweet time, 2 years or so, to build a new house. I can see how continuous construction for two years can be very annoying.
- unaxk38 7y agoAn apt reminder that we're all just meat bags at the end of the day.
- protonfish 7y agoYeah, I'm not including myself with entitled man-children that throw a tantrum when their garden is impugned. This is more of a reminder that our rulers are less ethical, less self-disciplined, and less wise than the average Joe. Why? Because they can be.
- microcolonel 7y agoIn what sense are Credit Suisse execs "our rulers"?
- jjoonathan 7y agoTo the degree that they have money and that money is power.
- guntars 7y agoPlease, having “some” money certainly doesn’t make you a ruler.
- microcolonel 7y agoMoney may make you powerful in some context, but being powerful doesn't make you a ruler.
- 0_gravitas 7y agopower implies a degree of control over something, one doesnt need to have 'serfs' to be a ruler of some sort, i am the ruler of my raspberry pi, it will do what i say, and i am in control of it
- 7y ago
- riazrizvi 7y agoHere’s [1] an article about JPMorgan doing similar employee surveillance starting in 2009. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel/ https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel...
- humble_engineer 7y agoThe Vatican was raided a few weeks ago at the same time AG Barr was visited the Italian intelligence minister. I would bet money this is related somehow.
- equalunique 7y agoRegardless of an alleged relation, I am very interested to know the details of Barr's Europe trip. I wonder if he will be visiting the FBI office in Ukraine.
- bitL 7y agoDoes Switzerland have any future? It's no longer a bank haven for rich Europeans evading taxes nor 3rd world dictators, its banks don't show entrepreneurial spirit in finding and investing into high-potential startups, rather to well-connected wantrepreneurs, there are no easy money to be made in Eastern Europe/Russia any longer, and its conservatism is likely going to prevent them from making necessary changes until the decline is felt in upper strata of society.
- elorant 7y agoSwitzerland has some of the largest corporations in the world in the pharmaceutical industry, and they're by far leaders in the watchmaking industry. Banking isn't the only business they rely on.
- bitL 7y agoI know about Basel and its pharma industry that is still top-notch, but as for banking they seem to go down rather quickly even if the effect is not going to be felt for the next decade outside negative interest rates. As for watches, I am not sure that is very relevant since smartphones, outside quickly converting expensive watches into cash while on the run from authorities...
- zepearl 7y ago> ...as for banking they seem to go down rather quickly... I do think that Switzerland might have a problem with banks soon or later, but currently I don't see such situation clearly developing (rather more in Germany with Commerzbank & Deutsche Bank?).
- jacquesm 7y agoAnd then there is pharma, high tech and companies like Logitech. Switzerland is doing just fine.
- bitL 7y agoJust out of curiosity, which Swiss-grown high-tech is there? I know only of Sauber Group.
- dagaci 7y agoI wonder if Mr Khan and Mr Thiam are still living next to each other and if Mr Khans view of the lake is still being blocked by the two trees. What is more astonishing is amount of money these guys manage is measured in the Trillions of USD.
- dontbenebby 7y agoThe article is light on details of this spying, I'd be curious what they did. Followed folks? Pushed malware to phones ala NSO?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- throw7 7y agoThe swiss rolled over after 9/11. That's when I knew the supposed and "renowned" swiss "privacy" and "discretion" was bunk.
- w1nst0nsm1th 7y agoThe tone of this article is incredibly provincial for something published on HN... It's seems to be nothing more than mundane chit-chat with not so much of interest outside Zurich social casting.