Banque Pasche was used as a platform for systematic tax avoidance and money laundering. This allegation was made in a French TV documentary. An added twist: Pasche is said to have held corruption money belonging to an official of FIFA, the world football authority.

It's the fourth big banking and tax scandal in France involving a Swiss financial institute. After HSBC Private Bank, UBS and Banque Reyl, the turn is on Pasche, the Geneva-based private bank.

The claim: Pasche acted as platform for a an organised system of tax avoidance and money laundering. This accusation was raised in TV documentary «Evasion Fiscale, Enquète sur le Crédit Mutuel», aired recently on «France 3» (see link below). The journalists based their research on information provided by «Mediapart», a Website dedicated to news and research.

Based on Information of Former Employees

Crédit Mutuel, the owner of Banque Pasche, is about to sell the private bank to Banque Havilland of Luxembourg, as finews.ch reported. The TV documentary won't have helped the transaction.

The allegations are based on statements by three former employees of Pasche in Monaco, who had been fired. They claimed that the bank, which today has branches in Geneva and Zurich, accepted untaxed money for years and may have been involved in money laundering.

Teixeira's Qatar Bonanza

The bank is also accused of holding cash of FIFA's Ricardo Teixeira, money that may have been tainted. In June, 30 million euros belonging to Teixeira were found on an account in Monaco. The functionary from Brazil may have received the amount from Qatar as a means to thank him for helping award the World Cup 2022 to the country in the Gulf region, which has no footballing tradition to speak of.

The documentary aired the recording of a voice it said belonged to Jürg Schmid, the previous head of Pasche in Monaco. The person speaks about a client from Brazil, a «hot potato», who wouldn't be accepted by any other bank in the principality. The 30 million however were worth the risk, the person in the voice recording says. Schmid left Pasche Monaco in 2013 and is under investigation.

Paris - Lyon - Geneva - Liechtenstein - Bahamas

The system of tax avoidance organised by Crédit Mutuel and its CIC unit was kept going into 2014, the TV journalists reported. The bank, France's fifth biggest, channelled the untaxed money to Banque Pasche in Geneva.

The clients were asked to go a branch of CIC in Paris to deposit their cash. A courier would then take the money to Geneva via Lyon. At the final destination, the bankers would see to the proper disguise of the funds, helped by the private bank's branches in Liechtenstein and the Bahamas. Havilland has acquired the two branches last year.

Crédit Mutuel and Banque Pasche, which was bought by Crédit Mutuel in 1996, both deny the allegations.

Codename «L'Etranger»

The TV documentary showed how the Geneva bank handled their secret accounts, presenting a paper with a coded list of customers. Each client is identified with the name of a famous writer, for example Charles Baudelaire, Simone de Beauvoir, Jack London or Albert Camus. The relevant account of the customer is identified by the name of a particular work of the writer.

A journalist used the knowledge about the code system to trick the bank in Geneva last year. He called the institute, said his name, Albert Camus, followed by the account, «L'Etranger», and was immediately put through to the customer adviser.

Pasche Divestment

Ironically, Crédit Mutuel/CIC decided in 2013, to divest Banque Pasche and found a buyer in Luxembourg.

Havilland was founded in 2009 and is under control of the Britisch family Rowland. Rowland aims to build an international private banking group. The bank wants to integrate the rest of Pasche and the acquisition is a done deal, research by finews.ch showed.