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A row between two highly-paid bankers, one of whom winds up being followed by a private detective on the streets of Zurich, while a third senior banker is effectively fired and a second investigator commits suicide.

It sounds like the plot of a thriller - but is actually a scandal that has shocked the close-knit world of private Swiss banking.

At the centre of the saga are Tidjane Thiam, the charismatic chief executive of Credit Suisse - Switzerland's second-largest bank - and Iqbal Khan, the man he promoted to attract wealthy new clients.

Also involved is John Tiner, once chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, the old City watchdog. Mr Tiner, a Credit Suisse director, was asked by the bank's board to investigate accusations that Mr Thiam ordered surveillance of Mr Khan.

The story revolves around a falling-out between Mr Thiam - a former executive at the insurer Aviva and later chief executive of the Prudential - and Mr Khan.

Mr Khan, who had been at Credit Suisse since 2013, saw his career flourish after Mr Thiam arrived at the bank in 2015 and immediately set about refocusing it away from securities trading and towards wealth management.

Mr Khan was put in charge of a new international wealth management division set up by Mr Thiam and made a conspicuous success of it.

Over time, however, the ambitious Mr Khan is said to have become frustrated in the role and the pair's relationship began to break down.

It reportedly worsened when Mr Khan bought and promptly knocked down a house in Herrliberg, an upmarket district on the banks of Lake Zurich, next to Mr Thiam's. Renovation work on the site took nearly two years and, according to reports, led Mr Thiam to complain to Urs Rohner, the bank's chairman, about Mr Khan. The latter claimed the house had been in his wife's family for years.

Mr Thiam nonetheless hosted a cocktail party at his home in January this year to welcome Mr Khan to the neighbourhood. There, though, the pair are said to have argued after Mr Khan made some comments to Mr Thiam's partner about some trees on Mr Thiam's property.

The upshot was that Mr Khan decided to look for another job and on 1 July this year, he announced he was joining UBS, Credit Suisse's deadly rival. This raised concerns that Mr Khan might seek to raid his former employer for staff.

Fast-forward to 17 September and Mr Khan, who was out shopping with his wife, realised he was being trailed.

Here, the accounts differ, with Mr Khan claiming that he and his wife were followed through the streets of Zurich on foot and by car.

Investigo, a small Zurich-based private detective firm, has testified to Mr Tiner's investigation and to Swiss authorities that it was hired by the bank to follow Mr Khan and take pictures of people he met with.

But the Investigo detective who gave evidence has insisted that he was working alone. He has also said that, rather than follow Mr Khan, he was in fact chased by the banker.

What is clear is that there was some kind of physical altercation behind the Swiss National Bank that resulted in Mr Khan making a complaint to the police.

Three days later a Swiss finance blog, Inside Parade Platz, reported the incident. It prompted Credit Suisse to launch its investigation under the auspices of Mr Tiner. Homburger, a local law firm, was recruited to carry out the work.

However, the same day that the bank announced it had hired the law firm, it emerged that a private investigator who had acted as a middle-man between Credit Suisse and Investigo had died. His lawyer said today that the man had killed himself.

That news cast a further cloud over Credit Suisse as Mr Rohner and Mr Tiner announced the findings of the Homburger investigation.

Mr Thiam has been exonerated of any wrong-doing.

The Homburger investigation did, however, conclude that Pierre-Olivier Bouee, the bank's chief operating officer and also its head of security, ordered an investigation into Mr Khan.

Mr Bouee, who worked alongside Mr Thiam at the Pru, Aviva and at the management consultancy McKinsey before joining him at Credit Suisse, has resigned. So, too, has a member of the bank's security team who was aware of the surveillance.

Unveiling the findings of the investigation, Mr Rohner said today that the board had full confidence in Mr Thiam, insisting there was no evidence to link him to surveillance of Mr Khan.

But he added: "The board…considers that…the observation of Iqbal Khan was wrong and disproportionate and has resulted in severe reputational damage to the bank."

He said there was no evidence to suggest Mr Khan had been seeking to poach staff from Credit Suisse. Nor was there any evidence that the surveillance of Mr Khan was related to his falling-out with Mr Thiam.

Yet few emerge from this saga well.

Credit Suisse allowed the mess to happen. Mr Rohner, in particular, stands accused of failing to defuse the row between Mr Thiam and Mr Khan. Had he held Mr Khan to the normal 'gardening leave' of between six months and a year, instead of allowing him to join UBS just two months later, the whole affair could have been avoided.

Mr Bouee has lost his job and stands accused of ordering a botched investigation.

Mr Thiam, who is popular with Credit Suisse shareholders and who remains hugely respected in the City for his achievements at the Pru, has lost his closest confidant at the bank.

His position may also have been weakened.

The Financial Times said that it "strains credulity" for Mr Thiam not to have known of the surveillance operation and added: "Mr Thiam must ask himself whether he is the right person to lead Credit Suisse out of the hole into which it has been cast by recent misjudgements."

As for Mr Khan, he has emerged as a pushy individual whose version of events on 17 September has had doubt cast on it in a sworn legal statement. The affair may jeopardise what is said to be his ultimate ambition - of eventually becoming chief executive of UBS - with Axel Weber, the bank's chairman, said to be unimpressed.

And, above all else, a man has died.