Credit Suisse’s scandals By Reuters

(Reuters) – Credit Suisse (SIX:) Chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio has resigned https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/credit-suisse-group-appoints-axel-lehmann-new-chairman-2022-01-16 after flouting COVID-19 quarantine rules, the bank said on Monday, raising questions over the embattled lender’s new strategy as it tries to recover from a string of scandals.

The abrupt move comes less than a year after Horta-Osorio was brought in to clean up the bank’s corporate culture marred by its involvement with collapsed investment firm Archegos and insolvent supply chain finance firm Greensill Capital.

The scandals in recent years that Switzerland’s second largest bank had endured, Horta-Osorio had said after joining, were the gravest he had seen in his career.

Here are the main crises to beset the bank in recent years:

CHAIRMAN EXIT

The personal conduct of Horta-Osorio, who joined in April 2021 from Britain’s Lloyds (LON:) Bank and was tasked with the job of fixing the bank, has come under scrutiny, with reports he breached COVID-19 quarantine rules https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-credit-suisse-finds-second-breach-covid-19-rules-by-chairman-sources-2021-12-29 twice last year.

The bank said Horta-Osorio resigned following an investigation commissioned by the board https://

Board member Axel Lehmann had taken over as chairman with immediate effect, Credit Suisse said.

TUNA BOND FRAUD

Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to defrauding investors https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/credit-suisse-resolves-fraudulent-mozambique-loan-case-547-million-coordinated-global over an $850 million loan to Mozambique meant to pay for a tuna fishing fleet and is paying U.S. and British regulators $475 million to settle the case under a deal announced in October.

About $200 million of the loan went in kickbacks to Credit Suisse bankers and Mozambican government officials. The bank was aware of a huge shortfall between the funds raised and the value of boats bought but failed to disclose this to investors when the loan was restructured in 2016, the regulators said.

Credit Suisse also arranged a loan that was kept secret from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). When Mozambique admitted to $1.4 billion in undisclosed loans the IMF pulled its support, sending the southern African country’s economy into a tailspin.

ARCHEGOS DEFAULT

Credit Suisse lost $5.5 billion when U.S. family office Archegos Capital Management defaulted in March 2021.

The hedge fund’s highly leveraged bets on certain technology stocks backfired and the value of its portfolio with Credit Suisse plummeted.

An independent report https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/credit-suisse-posts-78-q2-net-profit-decline-2021-07-29 into the incident slammed the bank’s conduct, saying its losses were the result of a…