The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Switzerland has indicted the bank Credit Suisse in a case related to a Bulgarian criminal organization, he announced Thursday, questioning in particular the measures taken to prevent money laundering .

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (Attorney General) has filed an indictment with the Federal Criminal Court, referring the bank, a former collaborator and two members of this criminal organization involved in international drug trafficking to trial, he said in a statement.

The bank took note "with astonishment" of this decision of the public prosecutor "in the context of a procedure that has already lasted for more than twelve years," it reacted in a statement.

"The bank rejects the allegations of alleged organizational shortcomings and will defend its position with determination," she said, also saying she was convinced of the innocence of her former employee.

Since February 2008, the Public Prosecutor's Office has been conducting criminal proceedings against former Bulgarian clients of the bank, suspected of money laundering , recalled Credit Suisse, stating that the investigation concerns facts that took place between 2004 and 2008.

This vast investigation against members linked to this organization involved in cocaine trafficking was then extended, including in particular over the course of the investigations a former employee of the Credit Suisse but also, from 2013, the bank itself concerning possible shortcomings in its organization.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office accuses the former manager of the bank of having helped to conceal the criminal origin of the funds and < a href="javascript:void(0);">Credit Suisse for not having taken all the necessary measures in her organization to prevent money laundering .

"The accusations against the bank are unfounded," said Credit Suisse in the statement, formally rejecting them. In particular, the bank cited an in-depth report in 2004 which concluded that it had met all the requirements for the prevention of money-laundering .

In addition to confiscation of profits, the Federal Criminal Court can impose a fine of up to 5 million Swiss francs (4.6 million euros), she said.

With the fall of the communist regime in Bulgaria, high-level athletes in need of money, including many wrestlers, were approached by mafia clans, traced the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Confederation.

From the early 2000s until at least 2012, one of them had organized a hierarchical criminal structure in cocaine trafficking. The money was then deposited in Switzerland, mostly in small denominations, in order to be injected into the legal economic circuit through real estate investments in Bulgaria and Switzerland.

He has since been convicted by several European courts, including in Italy in 2017.