Legal
Recently-Acquired BSI Says Not Affected As BTG Pactual Head Resigns Amid Corruption Scandal

A scandal surrounding Brazilian state-owned energy firm Petrobas has seen the resignation and arrest of the CEO and chairman of BTG Pactual.
Brazil's BTG
Pactual - owner of Switzerland's BSI, the private bank - has
announced that two men will take the helm as chief executive, as
well as announcing a new chairman and vice chairman,
following last week's arrest and subsequent
resignation of Andre Santos Esteves in a national corruption
scandal.
The bank elected Persio Arida as executive chairman and John Huw
Jenkins as vice chairman. The board also appointed Marcelo
Kalim and Roberto Sallouti as co-chief executives of the
bank.
"Andre Santos Esteves has resigned his positions as chairman of
the board and as CEO," the bank said in a statement today.
The resignation and arrest of Esteves comes shortly after BTG Pactual completed its SFr1.25 billion ($1.21 billion) takeover of BSI, which is headquartered in Lugano and which operates in markets such as Asia.
Asked about whether the drama will affect BSI, a spokesperson for
BSI said: "Since BSI is operationally independent from BTG
Pactual - we have our own GEB and a Board of Directors with a
majority of independent members – the resignation of Mr Esteves
as Pactual CEO and chairman is not going to affect BSI. The
announced appointments in fact concern BTG and not BSI."
Esteves, the Brazilian billionaire credited with turning BTG
Pactual into the largest independent investment bank in Latin
America, was arrested last week. The country's Supreme Court
authorised the warrant to detain the financier on suspicion he
and the leader of the government coalition in the Senate,
Delcidio Amaral, allegedly tried to interfere in testimony
related to a pay-to-play scheme at the state-run oil giant,
Petroleo Brasileiro. BTG and Petrobras are partners in a troubled
oil-rig supplier. Amaral has also been arrested.
News services said that prosecutors are preparing to file charges
against Esteves, whom they suspect, along with Ameral, of trying
to block a long-running investigation into graft at the state-run
oil firm. Esteves denies the allegations. According to
Reuters, Esteves still owns 28.8 per cent of the bank
and his stake includes a so-called golden share which gives him
veto rights on any board decisions.
Describing the new appointees, the bank said Arida has been
professor at the University of São Paulo and at the Pontifical
Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, and has held research
appointments at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton),
the Smithsonian Institution (Washington), and the Centre for
Brazilian Studies (Oxford). He is a member of the advisory board
of the Blavatnik School of Government (Oxford) and a member of
the corporate development committee of MIT. Prior to joining BTG
Pactual, Arida was governor of the Central Bank of Brazil and
president of the National Economic and Social Development Bank
(BNDES). In the private sector, he was a member of the board of
directors of Itaú, Vale, Unibanco and Sul América, among
others.
Jenkins is a partner of BTG Pactual and is based in the bank's
London office. Prior to joining BTG Pactual he was an executive
at UBS Investment Bank from 1996 to 2007, where he held several
positions, including chairman and chief executive. Prior to
joining UBS, he worked at BZW Investment Management from 1986 to
1996 and at Hill Samuel in 1996. Jenkins has spent most of his
career based in Asia and the US.
Kalim joined Banco Pactual in 1996 and became a partner in 1998.
He was a director at Pactual responsible for investments until
2008 when he left to found BTG. He then became chief financial
officer.
Sallouti joined Banco Pactual in 1994. Four years later he became
a partner and until 2003 was responsible for fixed income in the
domestic market, at which time he also became responsible for
international fixed income. Following the sale of Banco Pactual
to UBS, between 2006 and 2008 he was co-head of fixed income for
emerging markets. In 2008, he became a founder of BTG Pactual and
became chief operating officer, a post he occupied until
September of this year when he became CEO of asset management.