Swiss NGO Denounces UBS

The Swiss bank has been accused of money laundering among other wrongdoings in a complaint by the Swiss NGO Public Eye.

The Swiss NGO Public Eye has filed a criminal complaint against UBS with the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, as the newswire AWP reported Friday.

The plaintiff is accusing the bank of money laundering and not doing enough to prevent it, the report said.

The allegations are based on Public Eye’s Congo Hold-Up investigation carried out last year, which highlighted the relationship of the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila to a Belgian businessman. The businessman allegedly received transfers of «dubious» origin on his UBS bank account.

Based on the NGO’s Congo report, the French Financial Prosecutor’s Office has opened a preliminary investigation, which is looking into alleged acts of aggravated laundering of misappropriation of public funds, while the Belgian justice has searched the Belgian businessman’s home on suspicion of corruption of foreign public officials, the NGO writes on its webpage.

In 2019, Public Eye filed a criminal complaint against Credit Suisse in connection with the Mozambique affair.