An American lawyer representing victims of South Africa’s former Apartheid regime is set to launch a class action against Swiss banks.

Ed Fagan – a US-based lawyer who has previously won class-action suits on behalf of Holocaust victims – is expected to launch legal proceedings in New York on Monday against Switzerland’s two largest banks, UBS and Credit Suisse.

News of a possible class action emerged on Sunday in the Swiss paper, “SonntagsZeitung”, and was later confirmed by Fagan’s Swiss-based associate, Norbert Gschwend.

Gschwend said Fagan would announce further details about the legal proceedings at a press conference in the Swiss city of Zurich on Monday.

Both UBS and Credit Suisse said on Sunday they had received no formal notification about the possible launch of legal proceedings against them.

But according to the “SonntagsZeitung”, Fagan is likely to make a claim for “at least” SFr80 billion ($51 billion) against the banks on behalf of individuals who suffered during the Apartheid era.

Claims of profiteering

The lawyer claims that both banks continued to profit from and lend money to South Africa’s Apartheid regime after international sanctions were imposed on the country in 1985.

Switzerland did not join United Nations sanctions and has faced other criticism over its ties with South Africa.

Gschwend confirmed that at least 80 people had so far come forward to join the class action. He also said a call centre would open in South Africa on Monday “to allow other victims to join this class action”.

Fagan is expected to launch similar class actions against banks and financial institutions in Germany, France and Britain.

Claudia Kraaz, a spokeswoman for Credit Suisse, described the idea that the bank had been involved in any unjust activities in South Africa as “absurd”.

“In relation to its activities in South Africa, Credit Suisse has always abided by the rules and directives issued by the Swiss government,” Kraaz said.

A spokesman for UBS, Michael Willi, said only that the bank had “no knowledge” of any lawsuit.

Beyond Switzerland

The “Observer” newspaper in Britain reported on Sunday that a number of British and American companies which invested in South Africa are “also in the firing line” and could face class action suits.

“Incredible as it may seem,” the “Observer” quotes Fagan as saying, “financial institutions and corporations or their agents – including many that had conspired with and made possible the Nazi regime’s reign of terror – were willing, even anxious, to engage in the same type of business with apartheid South Africa.”

Fagan has previously represented the Swiss night guard, Christoph Meili, who saved Holocaust-era archives from being shredded at UBS.

http://www.swissinfo.ch, June 16, 2002