‘Kiss of death’: How the U.S. killed a Swiss merchant bank

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“There were people from jurisdictions other banks wouldn’t touch even if the money was clean,” said one person who knows him. “He wanted to reach those people.”

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Bär also drew on his network from Switzerland’s private banking world, including former colleagues from Julius Baer where he worked early in his career, to build MBaer’s early team. At its height it had about 1,000 clients.

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But according to the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, MBaer was a “critical access node to the U.S. dollar… for a wide variety of illicit actors”.

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In its report released alongside the Section 311 order, FinCen set out its case through examples spanning three of the world’s most sensitive sanctions theatres.

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Russia formed one strand. FinCen said MBaer maintained accounts and handled payments linked to Russians under U.S. sanctions including former president Dmitry Medvedev, facilitated money laundering by oligarchs and “politically exposed people”, and processed transactions linked to military procurement.

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Venezuela, where FinCen focused on alleged corruption and sanctions-evasion schemes tied to state oil company PDVSA, formed another axis.

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The filing also detailed an Iran-related network tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, classified by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization, alleging MBaer facilitated transactions connected to an oil-smuggling and money-laundering scheme.

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Investigators described a consistent pattern: networks operating in sanctioned sectors using layered corporate structures, intermediaries and cross-border transactions — and relying on banks willing to process them.

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MBaer recruited senior personnel with experience of clients from the three countries.

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FinCen said the bank’s beginnings were “anchored in Venezuela corruption”, citing reports that Siri Evjemo-Nysveen, who sat on its board from 2019 to 2023, had facilitated PDVSA-linked payments on behalf of her husband, Italian trader Alessandro Bazzoni.

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He was hit with U.S. sanctions in the last days of Donald Trump’s first term as president for his alleged role in a Venezuelan oil-trading network but they were later revoked during Joe Biden’s presidency.

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Lawyers for Evjemo-Nysveen and Bazzoni said the FinCen report referred to “unsubstantiated or debunked sources”.

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They added: “U.S. (and Swiss) authorities have never taken any action, investigative or otherwise, against Ms Evjemo-Nysveen in the context of the allegations referred to” in what they described as “discredited” reporting.

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FinCen alleges MBaer bankers continued to bring in high-risk clients even after internal compliance teams raised concerns, and that some transactions were processed despite red flags or incomplete due diligence checks.

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Some legal experts have described the FinCen report as “thin”, noting its reliance on blog posts and other public reporting.

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“You could argue that a lot of evidence is circumstantial — based on patterns of activity, intelligence assessments and links rather than a series of clearly established sanctions violations,” said one Zurich-based lawyer.

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Others say the question of whether Swiss authorities moved quickly or forcefully enough is more relevant.

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Even before any regulatory inquiries formally began, rumours had swirled in Swiss banking circles over MBaer’s clients — especially those from Russia.

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As scrutiny mounted, Bär remained defiant. “We are not the bank for oligarchs,” he insisted in a public statement. “We have a fairly broad base.”