Keller-Sutter can be advised for 20 million Swiss francs

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Karin Keller-Sutter (59) received help in Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse. The finance department (FDF) hired lawyers from the Zurich law firm Niederer Kraft Frey for more than ten million Swiss francs to help UBS’s state-orchestrated takeover of CS. Almost two million Swiss francs are fixed, the rest of the money flows depending on how much support the federal lawyers actually need.

Blick reported on the expensive order last week. Now it is known: the bill will become even more expensive. The Ministry of Finance announced the award for a new advisory mandate on Monday. This too was awarded privately – this means that companies could not bid for the contract as usual, but that the federal government hired a company directly.

“Professional advice from the federal government is important”

This time, Alvarez & Marsal Switzerland, the Swiss branch of a global American consulting firm, is getting the blessing of taxpayers’ money. The federal government pays another nearly nine million francs for its legal support. Three million are spoken, another 5.8 million are optional.

The finance department made no mention of this order last week when asked by Blick. There was only talk of a different mandate for the international consultancy Oliver Wyman. A small team of experts from the firm “examined the risk assessment of the FFD on the Standard Guaranteed Liquidity Support Loan for Credit Suisse on specific aspects”. This happened before the deal between the federal government, CS and UBS became known, which is why the order was not published. The order amount was less than 250,000 francs, the FDF explains.

In total, the outside consultants and lawyers for the CS debacle could cost the federal government nearly CHF 20 million. Keller-Sutter’s department defends the spending. “Professional advice from the federal government is important so that the risks for the state and the taxpayer can be kept as low as possible,” says FDF spokeswoman Isabelle Rösch. Further advisory mandates are not planned, at least as of today.

Source:Blick