Prominent former Swiss banker convicted of bribing senior Kuwaiti official

Pierre Mirabaud, a prominent former Swiss banker and former president of the Swiss Bankers Association, received a two-year prison sentence on Tuesday for bribing foreign public officials and laundering money. The sentence is suspended, so the 77-year-old will not go to prison unless he reoffends.

The Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona issued the ruling after a one-day trial conducted under a simplified procedure. Mirabaud admitted the facts and cooperated with the investigation, factors that allowed the case to proceed quickly.

According to the indictment, Mirabaud granted advantages worth 82 million Swiss francs, or 87 million euros, between 2000 and 2012 to Fahad al-Rajaan, then head of Kuwait’s Social Security institution. In return, al-Rajaan deposited more than $500 million, equivalent to 430 million euros, from the institution’s funds at the Geneva-based private bank.

The bank, one of Switzerland’s largest private institutions, was not a party to the proceedings. Al-Rajaan led Kuwait’s social security body for 30 years, from 1984 to 2014. Kuwait convicted him of misappropriating public funds, after which he fled to London, where he died in 2022.

Mirabaud, now retired, was also a partner at Banca Mirabaud from 1979 to 2009. He belongs to the family that has run the bank for seven generations. Founded in 1819, it is one of Switzerland’s oldest banks. The former banker has already paid 42 million Swiss francs, or 44 million euros, in compensation to Kuwait’s social security institution.