Swiss journalist risks court sentence for exposing top banker

ZURICH, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Zurich prosecutors this week charged Swiss journalist Lukas Haessig with violating banking secrecy over reporting that set off a high-profile corporate criminal trial of the former boss of Raiffeisen Bank Switzerland, Haessig said on his financial blog Inside Paradeplatz.

• Zurich-based Inside Paradeplatz published a series of articles in 2016 about Pierin Vincenz, former CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Switzerland, and his business partner Beat Stocker, who were found guilty of fraud in April 2022

• That verdict is currently under review by a higher court expected to rule in January 2027

• Police in June 2025 searched the blog’s Zurich office and home of its founder, seizing evidence linked to suspected violation of Swiss banking law

• Prosecutors had dropped the case in December 2025, but Zurich’s High Court in April said a court must decide how the banking secrecy provision should be interpreted after a complaint by Stocker

• Article 47 of the Swiss Banking Act criminalises disclosure of confidential information leaked by bank insiders, with penalties of up to three years in prison or a fine

• Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders Switzerland called the charges troubling and said Article 47 of the Swiss banking act must not be used to prosecute journalists

• Inside Paradeplatz’s reporting was clearly in the public interest, Reporters Without Borders said, adding the banking secrecy law had a chilling effect and pointing to “legal shortcomings” in Switzerland on press freedom

• Prosecutors said the presumption of innocence applies to Haessig. No court date has yet been set

(Reporting by Ariane Luthi, Editing by Xevi Fontdegloria)