Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, convicted Pierre Mirabaud, former president of the Swiss Bankers Association, of bribing a foreign public official and money laundering. The court imposed a suspended two-year prison sentence.
Mirabaud accepted the charges before trial and took part in an agreement to compensate the Kuwaiti Social Security Authority, known as PIFSS. The court heard the case in abbreviated proceedings and followed the Federal Prosecutor's Office indictment, according to the SDA news agency. After questioning the now-retired Geneva banker, the court read the operative part of the judgment late Tuesday morning.
The case concerned Mirabaud's long-standing business relationship with Fahad Al-Rajaan, former general director of PIFSS. The Federal Prosecutor's Office said Mirabaud systematically provided the senior official with unjustified rebates totaling 82.33 million Swiss francs between May 2000 and March 2012. In return, Al-Rajaan was said to have placed PIFSS funds with the Geneva private bank. By the end of 2012, the corresponding assets amounted to more than 595 million dollars, including investments in funds managed by the Mirabaud group. The transactions reportedly generated revenue in the millions for the bank, part of which was passed on to its partners.
The trial is described as one small element of a broader set of long-running legal proceedings in which Kuwait has pursued Al-Rajaan and his circle. Al-Rajaan died in London in 2022.
