One of the biggest fraud trials in Swiss financial history is about to get underway. Pierin Vincenz, former CEO of Swiss bank Raiffeisen, will be in court along with alleged accomplices including Beat Stocker, ex-boss of digital payments company Aduno. Vincenz and Stocker are accused of illegally lining their pockets with millions of francs as they engineered a series of company takeovers. While Raiffeisen is not on trial, the bank’s reputation has been dragged through the mud for authorising lavish foreign trips and strip club outings on company expenses and for failing to spot a series of suspect deals. Raiffeisen touts itself as “the third-largest banking group in Switzerland”, yet it is hardly known outside the Alpine state. That’s because it is a cooperative of more than 200 local banks providing loans and other services to their communities. As a result, the trial of its former CEO is unlikely to have the same global resonance as the latest scandals engulfing Credit Suisse...
