Swiss court gives Pierre Mirabaud suspended two-year sentence

Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court has convicted Pierre Mirabaud of bribing a foreign public official and money laundering, SRF reported. The former president of the Swiss Bankers Association received a suspended two-year prison sentence.

The court handled the case against the now-retired Geneva banker under expedited proceedings and followed the indictment filed by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. After questioning Mirabaud, the court read out the operative part of its judgment late on Tuesday morning.

According to the indictment, Mirabaud granted benefits worth 82 million Swiss francs to a senior Kuwaiti official so that the official would invest public funds with the bank bearing Mirabaud’s name.

The Kuwaiti official was president of the Gulf state’s public institution for social security, PIFSS. He placed part of the institution’s funds, amounting to 500 million dollars, with the Geneva private bank.

Mirabaud was president of the Swiss Bankers Association from 2003 to 2009.