UBS freezes suspicious SFr100 million account

UBS says the bank has a strict policy of investigating suspicious accounts swissinfo.ch

Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has frozen a bank account suspected of being linked to the family of the late Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha.

UBS said on Wednesday it reported its suspicion to the Swiss Federal Banking Commission and the Money Laundering Reporting Office.

Tanja Kocher, spokeswoman at the Federal Banking Commission, confirmed that the commission had been informed of UBS’ suspicions.

“We opened an investigation in order to look into the case and find out why UBS has only now noticed that they had money possibly linked to the Abacha family,” she said.

Hans-Peter Bauer, UBS Switzerland chief risk officer, emphasized that it was the bank’s strict policy to investigate such suspect business connections, and to avoid them when possible.

“We deeply regret that this relationship with UBS was not prevented at the outset and was not discovered earlier. However, we are satisfied with the quality of our internal controls,” he stated in the communiqué.

Raising questions

Suspicion was triggered when, during internal control procedures, the bank identified an account holding approximately SFr100 million ($60 million), which had not seen any noticeable movement since August 1999.

UBS stated in its press release that the bank account in question belonged to a British citizen, who, in 1996, introduced a company to UBS in which he along with two Nigerian business partners held interests.

When UBS first made enquiries about possible links to the Abacha family, the client reportedly made repeated assurances that his business partners had no political background or interests.

False name

After UBS had ascertained that one of the names of the business partners was false, the bank demanded further information of the client. When clarifications were not forthcoming, UBS said it conducted more internal investigations, which led to the suspicion that at least part of the money in the accounts belonged to Abacha’s sons.

The late dictator’s name has been linked to a number of high-profile investigations into suspected cases of money laundering in recent years.

Only last year, the Swiss economics minister, Pascal Couchepin, visited the Nigerian capital, Lagos, to look for evidence that would prove millions of dollars were illegally diverted from the West African country and placed in Swiss bank accounts by the late dictator.


by Billi Bierling and Ramsey Zarifeh with agencies