ZURICH (Reuters) -Leonteq strongly refutes allegations in media reports related to potential tax evasion or money laundering by third parties, the company said on Wednesday.
The Swiss fintech company said internal and external investigations had found no evidence to support the suspicions raised.
Its shares suffered a massive drop on Tuesday, losing as much as a quarter of their market value, after the Financial Times reported on unusual trading activity at the company.
The FT reported on Monday that whistleblowers had accused auditor EY of whitewashing suspicious trades, including money laundering and tax evasion in an investigation it conducted this year for Leonteq, a long-standing client. [nL8N31C2CS]
“Leonteq strongly refutes these allegations, which were first raised internally in 2021 and were thoroughly investigated by Leonteq’s Compliance department,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This investigation found no evidence that would corroborate the suspicions raised.”
The company also gave a business update, saying it was on track to meet its previously announced guidance of exceeding the prior year’s record group net profit of 155.7 million Swiss francs ($156.23 million) for the full-year 2022.
($1 = 0.9966 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Noele Illien, editing by Rachel More and John Revill)
