Julius Baer Group

These include a legal dispute with WikiLeaks in 2008, allegations of aiding U.S. citizens in tax evasion in 2011, and a censure by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in 2020 for deficiencies in combating money laundering.[9] On 4 July 1970 Dr. Ernst Bieri,[10] former head of the finance department of the City of Zürich joined as outside partner until 1990 as member of the board of Julius Baer Holding Ltd.[31] In February 2008, Julius Baer Group sent cease and desist letters to Wikileaks and its domain registrar, Dynadot, resulting in subsequent legal action.This outcome was seen as a significant victory for free speech advocates and set a precedent for how similar cases might be handled in the future, particularly those involving the publication of leaked documents on digital platforms.This excessive measure only served to draw more attention to the very information they wanted to suppress, as only a small portion of the documents concerned Julius Baer directly.[37] On 17 January 2011, Rudolf Elmer provided Wikileaks with the alleged bank account details of 2,000 individuals and corporations from three financial institutions, including Julius Baer.[47] Acting Chief Executive Bernhard Hodler reacted to the agreement in a statement saying that "This important step confirms Julius Baer's approach to cooperating constructively with competent authorities and our commitment to fulfill our regulatory obligations and responsibilities."[48] On 20 February 2020 the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) censured Julius Baer for falling "significantly short" in combating money laundering between 2009 and 2018 with regards to corruption allegations involving FIFA and PDVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil and gas company.FINMA ordered Julius Baer to change its remuneration and recruitment policies, and appointed an auditor to oversee the bank to ensure its compliance with anti-money laundering standards."[51] Julius Baer, a Swiss bank, faced significant controversy stemming from its involvement in a money laundering scheme associated with corrupt Venezuelan officials.The scandal came to light in 2018 when Matthias Krull, a former banker at Julius Baer, was arrested on money laundering charges in Miami while vacationing with his family.Swiss regulators also found systemic failures in Julius Baer's compliance practices in 2022, which included deficiencies in identifying its Latin American clients and incentivizing behaviors that raised money laundering concerns.[52] In 2015, Julius Baer began cooperating with the US Department of Justice concerning its investigation of alleged money laundering and corruption involving officials and affiliates of the world soccer federation, FIFA.This alleged fraud came to light in October 2019, when the couple met with their Goldman Sachs banker at Julius Baer's headquarters and discovered significant discrepancies in their account balances.The couple also filed civil lawsuits against Benjamin G. and Julius Baer, as well as a complaint with FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator, to investigate potential compliance violations and facilitation of money laundering by the bank.Julius Baer Foundation works together with and supports among others Sistema B (Chile), Solafrica (Ethiopia), Swisscontact (Switzerland) and Plastic Free Planet (UK).