Credit Suisse Contractor’s Suicide Probed by Zurich Prosecutor

(Bloomberg) -- The suicide of a Credit Suisse Group AG contractor amid a spying scandal that has rocked Switzerland’s banking scene is being investigated by Zurich prosecutors and police.

Although there are no signs that anyone else was involved in the suicide of the man, who has only been described as T., police are now conducting further investigations to “clarify the circumstances surrounding the death,” the Zurich prosecutor’s office said Tuesday in a statement.

The man took his own life last week after the private investigator he’d hired to track star banker Iqbal Khan became front-page news in Swiss tabloids. The bank hired detectives because of fears Khan would poach employees after moving to crosstown rival UBS Group AG.

Chief Operating Officer Pierre-Olivier Bouee is stepping down over his decision to order detectives to shadow Khan, the former head of the wealth-management unit, Credit Suisse said at a press conference on Tuesday morning. Bouee and the bank’s head of global security were the only Credit Suisse employees who knew about the plan to tail Khan, according to the bank.

A separate investigation into Iqbal Khan’s original criminal complaint continues, the Zurich prosecutor’s office said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hugo Miller in Geneva at hugomiller@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser

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