Julius Baer Group Ltd

In May 2021, Bank Julius Baer admitted in U.S. federal court that it conspired to launder more than $36 million in bribes paid to football officials in the FIFA corruption scandal. The bank entered a three-year deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay more than $79 million, including a $43.32 million fine and $36.37 million forfeiture. The criminal information charged the bank with conspiracy to commit money laundering. Source: U.S. Department of Justice https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/bank-julius-baer-admits-laundering-over-36-million-bribes-fifa-case

FINMA disclosed in 2016 that its enforcement proceedings concerning Julius Baer's cross-border U.S. private-client business had found supervisory-law breaches and inadequate risk management. FINMA said the bank underestimated legal and reputational risks and accepted that breaches of U.S. law were possible. The proceedings examined strategy, controls, compliance culture and cooperation with external asset managers. The bank had proactively contacted FINMA and conducted an internal investigation before FINMA opened enforcement proceedings. Source: Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2016/02/20160205-mm-bjb/

In February 2020, FINMA concluded enforcement proceedings against Julius Baer and found serious anti-money-laundering shortcomings between 2009 and early 2018, linked particularly to corruption risks involving PDVSA and FIFA. FINMA found systematic failures in due diligence, reporting and risk management: almost all 70 risk-selected business relationships and a large majority of more than 150 sampled transactions showed deficiencies. FINMA ordered extensive remediation, independent monitoring and temporarily prohibited large and complex acquisitions until compliance was restored. Source: Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2020/02/20200220-mm-jb/