House search at the Bank Pictet in connection with the Petrobras affair
A house search took place at the Pictet Bank in Geneva because of the Petrobras affair. It is the fourth Swiss bank targeted by the investigators.
the essentials in brief
- There was a house search at the Geneva private bank Pictet in March.
- This was done by federal prosecutors over the Petrobras affair.
In mid-March, the federal prosecutor’s office carried out a search at the Geneva-based private bank Pictet in connection with the corruption scandal surrounding the semi-public Brazilian oil giant Petrobras. The federal prosecutor’s office confirmed a corresponding report by the French-speaking Swiss newspaper “Le Temps” to the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday.
Accordingly, the house search was carried out as part of ongoing criminal proceedings opened in December 2021 “against the bank, a natural person and unknown person on suspicion of aiding and abetting the bribery of foreign officials and serious money laundering”.
Fourth Swiss bank investigated for Petrobras affair
Bank Pictet is the fourth Swiss bank affected by the opening of a criminal investigation by the federal prosecutor in connection with the Petrobras case. The federal prosecutor’s office had already targeted PKB in Ticino, J.Safra Sarasin in Basel and Cramer & Cie in Geneva.
At the request of “Le Temps”, Bank Pictet explained that it had carried out an internal analysis in 2014 in coordination with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) and submitted the dossier to the supervisory authority in 2015. According to the Geneva bank, it also works with the authorities.
Brazilian president ousted over Petrobras affair
The huge corruption network of the state oil company Petrobras, which was uncovered in 2014 by Operation “Lava Jato” (car wash), had caused an international uproar and led to the ousting of Brazilian President Dilma Roussef.
Petrobras is said to have awarded contracts to construction groups and other companies on overpriced terms. They paid bribes to politicians and parties. The affair, which was worth US$3.5 billion, has sparked investigations in several Latin American countries and Switzerland.
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