Legal
Julius Baer Internally Investigates Venezuelan AML Case

The private bank's CEO said it is not being charged over the matter.
Julius Baer is
carrying out an internal probe after a former employee who since
his arrest has admitted to taking part in a billion-dollar scheme
to launder money extracted from Venezuela’s state oil
company.
The matter, which first hit headlines at the end of July, was
reported again by Bloomberg late last week when chief executive
Bernhard Hodler spoke about various issues in Zurich.
The former employee is Matthias Krull, 44, a German resident in
the central American nation of Panama, who pleaded guilty to a
count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was arrested
in July and charged with using real estate and fake investment
schemes to hide $1.2 billion embezzled from Venezuelan crude oil
producer Petroleos de Venezuela.
The bank has stated: “Julius Baer has taken note of the
allegations of the July 2018 criminal complaint against several
individuals, including a former relationship manager, as well as
of the statements in the plea agreement of its former employee.
The former employee pleaded guilty to charges brought against him
in his personal capacity.”
“Julius Baer is conducting an internal investigation based on the
information available in the criminal complaint and plea
agreement of the former employee. Julius Baer is cooperating with
competent authorities – as we typically would in cases involving
allegations linked to it. Julius Baer cannot comment on this
further until it has completed the internal investigation,” it
said.