whitening

The subsidiary of a company

geneva wealth management fined 8.2 million

of dollars. At issue:

customers who feel

sulphur.

The Gulf countries have become the new Eldorado of some Swiss wealth managers in search of zero taxation, confidentiality for their clients and less chicanery regulations than in Switzerland. But the adventure on the Arab-Persian shores can sometimes turn into a nightmare. This is shown by the example of horizon invest partners, located in a chic building in the banking district of Geneva.

One of its leaders has set up a sister company in Qatar, called Horizon Crescent Wealth or HCW. Led by two Swiss financiers, it boasted of managing the fortunes of wealthy clients as well as their yachts, private jets or art collections. But on March 9, a Qatari court upheld HCW's heavy fine of more than $8.2 million for flagrant breaches of anti-money laundering rules.

Three problematic cases

The court's ruling, which we have obtained, is severe for the society of the two Swiss. According to the Qatari magistrates, HCW had based its model on very light touch controls, or even downright incomplete, of its clients' funds.

The Court cites three examples of problematic cases accepted by HCW. Two women who said they ran a call center in Costa Rica brought in 12 million euros. The source of the funds, according to the Qatari authorities, had not been properly verified. The intermediary who had introduced these customers to HCW had been the subject of an investigation for money laundering in Spain.

Second problematic client: an African diplomat - Cameroonian, according to a document on file - who received large commissions on public contracts in his country. "The possibility of corruption was obvious. HCW refused to see her," the Qatari court said in its ruling.

In a third example, a Saudi official allegedly received money for an alleged consulting contract on the supply of ambulances. The money actually came from a "well-known arms dealer," according to the court.

The recent leak of bank documents from the "FinCEN files" makes it possible to learn more about this arms dealer. According to the investigation conducted by our partners in the OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project), a Cypriot company of Serbian Slobodan Tesic paid $ 1.7 million to a structure created by HCW for its Saudi client.

But Slobodan Tesic is precisely a well-known figure in the world of the trade in war material. In 2017, the U.S. Treasury Department placed him under sanctions accusing him of violating an embargo in Liberia and using his Cypriot company to bribe politicians. In a letter to OCCRP, Slobodan Tesic denies any corruption and says he has initiated a process to lift sanctions against him in the United States. One of his associates, a Yemeni arms dealer named Khaled Hamed, was also a customer of HCW through two shell companies.

A bulky partner

In Geneva, the lawyer of the two Swiss who run HCW, Olivier Péclard, explains that his clients "have always vigorously contested the accusations against them [] and still dispute them". According to him, a criminal investigation was opened into the case three years ago by the Attorney General of Qatar, but it has yielded nothing.

According to Olivier Péclard, the problems encountered by the two Swiss in Qatar are due to their local partner. Former administrator of HCW, this nephew of the Qatari Minister of Finance - this is what a document given to us by the Geneva lawyer said - managed the most problematic clients on the spot. In particular, he is said to have initiated relations with the African diplomat and the Serbian arms dealer's company.

The two Swiss financiers would never have heard of Slobodan Tesic. Their lawyer in Qatar claimed during the proceedings that HCW's clients were "for the most part" known personally to the company's executives. And that they had undergone interviews, "in Geneva and virtually", before their funds were accepted.

A conflict would now oppose the former Qatari director of HCW and his Swiss associates. The first claims unpaid bonuses for more than $1.3 million. The latter accuse him of having squandered customer funds at the casino. This does not change the initial problem: the two Swiss and their company must pay the fine of $ 8.2 million imposed on Qatar. According to their Geneva lawyer Olivier Péclard, the "terms of settlement" are now the subject of discussions with the Qatari authorities.