Swiss court finds bank employee guilty of breaching secrecy laws

[Barron]

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Swiss Federal Criminal Court found a former Credit Suisse Group AG employee guilty of business espionage and breaking banking secrecy laws in a case brought jointly by the Zurich-based bank and a state prosecutor.

A judge gave the employee, identified only by the initial A, a 24-month suspended sentence and a 3,500 Swiss-franc ($3,708) fine, according to an e-mailed statement with details of today’s judgment in the court in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

The man on trial was a former Credit Suisse employee who leaked customer account information to an accomplice, Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag reported Dec. 11. An Austrian man held in connection with the theft of Swiss bank-account data and its sale to Germany killed himself in prison in September 2010.

“Credit Suisse welcomes the fact that the proceedings relating to the theft of client data have been conducted and completed and that the perpetrator has received a criminal sentence for the offense,” said Marc Dosch, a spokesman for Switzerland’s second-biggest bank.

Swiss banking-secrecy laws dating back to 1934 prevent bank employees from sharing client details with foreign governments.