Following its criminal investigation, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG), on 26 November 2024, filed an indictment at the Federal Criminal Court against Banque Lombard Odier & Cie SA and one of its former employees, accusing them of aggravated money laundering.
The bank and its former employee are suspected of having played a decisive role in enabling the concealment of the proceeds of «The Office», set up by Gulnara Karimova and considered by the OAG as a criminal organization.
The indictment is relating to the facts of the case that led the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) to file an indictment against Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the former President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and a second accused before the Federal Criminal Court (FCC) on 28 September 2023. They are accused of participating in a criminal organisation known as «The Office», which operated in several countries, and of laundering in Switzerland, between 2005 and 2012, assets derived from crimes committed by this criminal organisation of which Gulnara Karimova was, according to the OAG’s indictment, the supreme head (see press release of 28 September 2023).
In this context, investigations have led the OAG to believe that part of the money laundered in Switzerland may have been transferred in bank accounts at Banque Lombard Odier & Cie SA (hereinafter «Lombard Odier») in Geneva. The bank and one of its former relationship managers are alleged to have played a decisive role in concealing the proceeds of the criminal activities of «The Office». They have therefore been under criminal investigation since December 2016 on suspicion of aggravated money laundering. The investigation phase was completed with the filing of the indictment before the FCC. The former relationship manager, who worked in Lombard Odier's private clients’ department between 2008 and 2012, is charged with aggravated money laundering under Art. 305bis para. 1 and 2 of the Swiss Criminal Code (SCC). Lombard Odier is charged with serious money laundering under Art. 305bis para. 1 and 2 SCC in conjunction with corporate criminal liability (Art. 102 para. 2 SCC).
Allegations made against the relationship manager
The defendant is alleged to have known Gulnara Karimova and several members of «The Office» prior to his employment at Lombard Odier, in particular through his role as a member of the investment committee of a fund of the daughter of the former President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. After joining the bank in 2008, he allegedly maintained active contact with members of «The Office» and offered his services to some of them. In his role as relationship manager, the defendant is accused of having opened or having arranged for the opening of, between August 2008 and August 2012, nine bank accounts of “The Office” at Lombard Odier intended to receive funds derived from crimes committed by this criminal organisation. He is alleged to have subsequently managed these bank accounts, for which false beneficial owners were allegedly named, and to have failed to report this within the bank, despite knowing that the true and sole beneficial owner of the funds was Gulnara Karimova. In this context, the defendant is also alleged to have falsely described a company of «The Office» as an operating company, knowing that it had no business activities and no employees and had been set up by the criminal organisation solely to provide a legal cover for the transfer of funds of criminal origin. The defendant is also accused of failing to clarify, or falsely clarifying, or falsely and belatedly clarifying the economic background of the credits and debits involved in the nine bank accounts in question, and of failing to inform the Compliance Monitoring unit, thereby circumventing the obligation to report the matter immediately to the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS). In addition, in November 2011 and June 2012, he allegedly allowed an unauthorised member of «The Office» to access a safe deposit box linked to a banking account of «The Office» at Lombard Odier and to remove documents that were to serve as legal cover to justify money transfers, or to transfer all the documents to another safe deposit box.
According to the indictment of the OAG, the accused knew that the funds transferred to the nine bank accounts mentioned originated from criminal activities of «The Office», in particular from acts of corruption in the Uzbek telecommunications sector. In this context, he is alleged to have taken actions aimed at hinder the identification of the origin, the tracing and forfeiture of assets which he knew to be the proceeds of crimes. The acts with which the accused is charged constitute the offence of aggravated money laundering under Art. 305bis para. 1 and 2 SCC.
Allegations made against the bank
The OAG alleges that Lombard Odier failed to comply with antimoney laundering standards and its own internal guidelines in the opening and management of the nine bank accounts in question. In particular, the investigation revealed shortcomings in the identification and reidentification of the beneficial owners of the bank accounts in question, the obligation to conduct additional due diligence on higher-risk business relationships, the acceptance and annual review of business relationships with politically exposed persons (PEPs), the obligation to identify and clarify higher-risk transactions and the bank's internal organisation.
From at least 2008 to 2012, Lombard Odier's anti-money laundering programme was allegedly deficient in a number of respects, with the result that the repeated and persistent acts of money laundering committed by the employee responsible for the nine bank accounts of «The Office» could neither be prevented nor detected. In this context, the bank is alleged to have failed to take all appropriate and necessary organisational measures to prevent the commission of aggravated money laundering offences within the bank. It is therefore charged with aggravated money laundering under Art. 305bis para. 1 and 2 SCC in conjunction with corporate criminal liability (Art. 102 para. 2 SCC).
