Niederer Kraft & Frey AG

Swiss firm Niederer Kraft Frey is acting for corporate clients in a host of big-ticket cases, including for a Swiss trading company in a fraud case involving the sale of covid-19 protective masks that has attracted media attention domestically and in neighbouring Germany.     

The firm

Niederer Kraft Frey (NKF) is a full-service law firm with over 100 lawyers who advise an international client base from its office in Zurich.

Partners Philipp Candreia and Juerg Bloch co-lead the firm’s investigations practice, which consists of five partners and four associates.

New York bar-qualified Bloch made partner in 2020 and has experience acting in cross-border investigations involving both Swiss and foreign authorities. He is featured in Who’s Who Legal: Investigations and was listed in GIR’s 40 under 40 in 2020. The Zurich Bar Association appointed him co-chair of its internal investigations and compliance group in March.

Partner Philipp Candreia primarily represents clients in the financial industry and is currently conducting several internal investigations. He notably acted for Swiss bank BSI in 2015 when it became the first bank to sign a non-prosecution agreement with the US Justice Department as part of its Swiss bank programme.

Of counsel Peter Honegger is a veteran of the firm who has represented a number of Swiss and foreign companies, including UBS and car manufacturer BMW. His areas of expertise include Swiss secrecy laws, and the disclosure of evidence located in Switzerland for use in foreign proceedings.

Partner François Bianchi is another banking and white-collar lawyer at the firm who regularly represents financial institutions in proceedings before the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma).

Organisations including world football body Fifa and Swiss childcare service company Globegarden have previously called on partners Daniel Eisele and Tamir Livschitz to conduct probes into highly sensitive matters.

Recent events

NKF’s investigations prowess is clear to see by the firm being tapped to act in a recent case involving Swiss trading company Emix, which has received a lot of media attention in Switzerland and neighbouring Germany over the pricing and quality of its masks.

The firm is representing Emix in an investigation by Swiss and German authorities into the company allegedly selling sub-standard face masks to the Swiss military and the German government in the early months of the covid-19 pandemic. The case has caused controversy in Germany, where local media outlets have also reported that politicians helped the company win public contracts despite concerns about the quality of their products. Emix denies wrongdoing. 

Multiple other companies have recently called on the firm to look into potential misconduct. NKF is currently conducting an investigation for a global steel producer into possible breaches of international sanctions. In 2020, the firm conducted an internal investigation for a Swiss financial institution focused on its sale of structured financial products.

Another big case in the public eye is NKF’s representation of EFG Bank (formerly BSI Bank) together with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in ongoing investigations by US and Swiss prosecutors into whether the bank played a role in the 1MDB embezzlement scandal.

Finma has already fined BSI in connection with the 1MDB issue, handing the bank a US$96 million penalty in 2016 for breaches of anti-money laundering rules and for gross misconduct at the bank’s Singaporean branch.

The firm also has extensive experience acting for individuals. In a high-profile case that’s currently before the Swiss Supreme Court, NKF is acting for Martin Egli, the chairman and founding partner of Swisspartners in a US-Swiss tax dispute. The case, which began in 2015, centres on Egli providing the DOJ with client data outside the channels of mutual assistance. The Swiss Attorney General’s Office alleges that the conduct is a violation of Swiss law and has charged Egli with violating the country’s blocking statute. The Swiss Federal Criminal Court acquitted Egli in 2018 but prosecutors have appealed against the decision.

Network

The firm is based in Zurich and counts Swiss law firm Erni Caputo among its regional co-counsel. Others in NKF’s international network include S Horowitz & Co in Tel Aviv, Arifa in Panama City and Vasslaw in Cyprus.

Clients

NKF has a large number of banks on its client list, including EFG Bank, UBS and Credit Suisse. It has also acted for Fifa and car manufacturer BMW.

Track record

NKF has a strong record of representing major Switzerland-based institutions and organisations.

The firm advised BSI Bank in its $211 million settlement with the Justice Department in 2015 – the first of over 80 Swiss banks to sign a non-prosecution agreement with the US DOJ under the Swiss bank programme, which allowed certain Swiss banks to avoid prosecution for helping US citizens evade tax if they paid a fine and agreed to cooperate with the agency.

NKF previously represented Fifa alongside US counsel Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as US counsel as US and Swiss authorities conducted investigations into allegations of corruption by executives within the world football body. GIR reported in 2019 that Fifa had swapped out NKF for Swiss firm Bär & Karrer in the matter.