FILE PHOTO: Then UBS chief executive Andrea Orcel leaves a UK parliamentary inquiry into Libor interest rates in London on January 9, 2013. REUTERS/Olivia Harris/File Photo
July 26, 2019
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Santander <SAN.MC> has accused banker Andrea Orcel of “dubious ethical and moral behavior” in a statement defending itself against a 100 million euro ($111 million) lawsuit brought by the Italian after the lender withdrew an offer to make him chief executive.
Orcel, one of Europe’s highest profile bankers, filed a lawsuit in Madrid earlier this month claiming breach of contract. He was offered the CEO job at Santander last year but the bank changed its mind in January, saying it could not meet his pay demands.
Orcel has alleged that a four-page letter written in September in which Santander offered him the job, along with a stock and bonus package to compensate for deferred pay he risked losing by quitting UBS, is legally binding.
But Santander said in a statement on Friday that the letter to Orcel was not a contract as required by Spanish law.
“A contract was never completed or fulfilled,” it said.
Santander said it had learned through Orcel’s lawsuit that in January he started to record private conversations, without other parties’ knowledge or consent.
“This is a practice of dubious ethical and moral behavior for someone who was potentially to become Santander’s CEO and has ultimately confirmed that the board of directors’ decision not to proceed with his appointment was right”.
A spokesman for Orcel did not immediately return calls for comment.
The lawsuit is expected to be handled by Madrid’s court Juzgado de Primera Instancia which could take more than 18 months to reach a verdict, several lawyers have told Reuters.
(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; additional reporting by Andres Gonzalez; Writing by Andrei Khalip and Rachel Armstrong; Editing by Jose Elias Rodriguez and Susan Fenton)
