Credit Suisse has received a subpoena related to its use of experts at America's largest expert-network firm, Gerson Lerhman, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Specifically, authorities requested documents and information about how the Swiss bank's researchers and clients used Gerson Lehrman.
Yesterday Reuters reported that twelve firms had received subpoenas, and publicly the identity of only 7 of those firms are known, so we could assume that Credit Suisse can also be added to that list.
A law enforcement official told us that the subpoena's would have been sent out at the same time, so the bank has probably been sitting on this news since Diamondback, Level Global and SAC also received their FBI requests.
We wonder if that means Goldman - the only bank that until now has been mentioned in the probe - has also received a writ, but has done a stellar job of keeping it under wraps?
Morgan Stanley also has a formal partnership agreement with Gerson Lehrman, and no surprise, refused to comment on the story.
The FBI reportedly questioned a consultant for Gerson, who works for Marvell Technology, in August as part of the insider trading probe. The consultant is said to have provided advice on the tech industry to Diamondback.
From the WSJ,
Those alliances boosted access by the banks and their clients to Gerson's network of doctors, technology-firm employees and thousands of other experts; and some of the banks' researchers and analysts in turn were made available to consult with Gerson clients.
As part of its deal with Gerson, Credit Suisse bars banking analysts from talking with consultants who are employees of publicly traded companies, or who have left publicly traded companies within the past six months, a person familiar with the matter says.
Of course Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley are not only the only banks that make use of expert networks, and some even have ownership stakes in those types of companies.
Goldman Sachs, for example, owns 16% of Epocrates, a medical-technology provider that also manages an expert network of doctors and medical specialists. In fact their Hudson Street unit has bought into several "third-party" research firms in the last three years.
UBS has a 20% stake in Integrity Research Associates, a firm that tracks expert networks.
