Sarasin’s Deputy CEO Resigns to Defend Himself in German Probe

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) — Eric Sarasin resigned from his role as deputy chief executive officer of Bank J. Safra Sarasin AG, the Swiss private bank that belongs to the Safra Group, to focus on defending himself in an investigation in Germany.

Sarasin “categorically denies the accusation made against him and wants to be free and available to organize his own defense,” the Basel-based bank said in a statement today, without specifying what he was being probed for.

Police in the northern Swiss city searched the offices of the bank last week, the website Inside Paradeplatz reported on Oct. 23, citing the Basel prosecutor. Those raids were conducted in response to a request from the public prosecutor in Cologne, Germany investigating losses by German billionaire Carsten Maschmeyer.

Maschmeyer was the founder of AWD Holding AG, a German insurance broker and unit of Swiss Life Holding AG, Switzerland’s biggest life insurer. Maschmeyer received anonymous letters on April 25 and May 8 threatening he would be killed should he continue a 14 million-euro ($18 million) damage suit against Sarasin bank, German newspaper Bild reported in May.

Sarah Roetzer, a spokeswoman for Maschmeyer, declined to comment.

–With assistance from Andy Hoffman in Geneva.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hugo Miller in Geneva at [e-mail] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Smith at [e-mail] Zoe Schneeweiss