Banking in Switzerland dates to the early 18th century through Switzerland's merchant trade and over the centuries has grown into a complex and regulated international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland and the country has been one of the largest offshore financial centers and tax havens in the world since the mid-20th century, with a long history of banking secrecy and client confidentiality reaching back to the early 1700s. Starting as a way to protect wealthy European banking interests, Swiss banking secrecy was codified in 1934 with the passage of a landmark federal law, the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks. These laws were used to protect assets of persons being persecuted by Nazi authorities but have also been used by people and institutions seeking to illegally evade taxes, hide assets, or to commit other financial crime.
Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland as a standalone firm but now a subsidiary of UBS. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse will be fully integrated into UBS but while the integration is not complete both banks are operating separately. Headquartered in Zürich, as a standalone firm it maintained offices in all major financial centers around the world and provided services in investment banking, private banking, asset management, and shared services. It was known for strict bank–client confidentiality and banking secrecy. The Financial Stability Board considered it to be a global systemically important bank. Credit Suisse was also a primary dealer and Forex counterparty of the Federal Reserve in the United States.
Credit Suisse First Boston is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York.
Wasserstein Perella & Co. was a boutique investment bank established by Bruce Wasserstein, Joseph R. Perella, Bill Lambert, and Charles Ward in 1988, former bankers at First Boston Corp., until its eventual sale to Dresdner Bank in 2000 for some $1.4 billion in stock. The private equity business of the investment firm was not included in the sale and was to be sold off to existing Wasserstein shareholders.
Michael Richard Lynch was a British technology entrepreneur who co-founded Autonomy Corporation, Invoke Capital and Darktrace. He had various other roles, including in an advisory capacity.
The First Boston Corporation was a New York–based bulge bracket investment bank, founded in 1932 and acquired by Credit Suisse in 1988. After the acquisition, it operated as an independent investment bank known as CS First Boston until 2006, when the company was fully integrated into Credit Suisse. In 2022, Credit Suisse revived the "First Boston" brand as part of an effort to spin out the business.
Evercore Inc., formerly known as Evercore Partners, is a global independent investment banking advisory firm founded in 1995 by Roger Altman, David Offensend, and Austin Beutner. The firm has advised on over $4.7 trillion of merger, acquisition, and restructuring transactions since its founding. Evercore is widely considered one of the most prestigious and elite investment banking advisory firms.
Adebayo "Bayo" O. Ogunlesi is a Nigerian lawyer and investment banker. He is currently chairman and managing partner at the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). Ogunlesi was the former head of global investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston before being promoted to chief client officer and executive vice chairman.
William F. Lee is an American intellectual property and commercial litigation trial attorney. As co-managing partner of WilmerHale, Lee was the first Asian-American to lead a major American law firm. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, the governing board of Harvard University.
Michael David Grimes is a Managing Director and Head of Global Technology Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley.
Robertson Stephens is a wealth management firm serving high net worth individuals and family offices. The firm is registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment advisor.
3PAR Inc. was a manufacturer of systems and software for data storage and information management headquartered in Fremont, California, USA. 3PAR produced computer data storage products, including hardware disk arrays and storage management software. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise after an acquisition in 2010.
NautaDutilh, an independent law firm practicing Dutch, Belgian, and Luxembourg law. NautaDutilh is one of the largest law firms in Europe, with over 400 lawyers, civil law notaries, and tax advisers in offices in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Luxembourg, New York, and Rotterdam. The firm history dates back to 1724.
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components, as well as software and related services to consumers, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and fairly large companies, including customers in government, health, and education sectors. The company was founded in a one-car garage in Palo Alto by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939, and initially produced a line of electronic test and measurement equipment. The HP Garage at 367 Addison Avenue is now designated an official California Historical Landmark, and is marked with a plaque calling it the "Birthplace of 'Silicon Valley'".
Eileen Murray is an American financial services executive and is the former co-CEO at Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest institutional asset managers. Murray has also held executive positions at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, Duff Capital Advisors and Investment Risk Management. She was named one of the 25 Most Powerful Non-Bank Women in Banking, by U.S. Banker, for the years 2007 and 2008.
UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered simultaneously in Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres as the largest Swiss banking institution and the largest private bank in the world. UBS investment bankers and private bankers are known for their strict bank–client confidentiality and culture of banking secrecy. Because of the bank's large positions in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific markets, the Financial Stability Board considers it a global systemically important bank.
Qatalyst Partners is an American technology-focused boutique investment bank that specialises in mergers and acquisitions. It is based in San Francisco with an additional office in London.
The Swiss investment bank and financial services company, UBS Group AG, has been at the center of numerous tax evasion and avoidance investigations undertaken by U.S., French, German, Israeli, and Belgian tax authorities as a consequence of their strict banking secrecy practices.
Reid Collins & Tsai LLP is a national trial law firm with offices in New York, Austin, Dallas, Wilmington, and Washington, D.C. The firm represents plaintiffs in complex commercial litigation on a mixed-fee or contingency-fee basis.
Mark Floyd Pomerantz is an American attorney. He is a member of the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, generally referred to as Paul, Weiss. In February 2021, he left that firm to assist with the Manhattan District Attorney's investigation into the finances of former president Donald Trump until his resignation from the case in February 2022.
