“He said he was too close, but exactly how too close, again, I couldn’t – I couldn’t say. But he felt it was too close.” I infer that one reason why Bane found the subject a painful one was that, at least at times, he considered Zoran to have too close a relationship with the “barracudas” who had twice tried to kill him, first in the car accident and again in the skiing accident. Mr Sulmoni 107. Mr Sulmoni is a banker, and is currently an executive director of UBS Wealth Management. He first met Bane in March 1989. Bane was an existing customer of UBS, and Mr Sulmoni was introduced to him by his predecessor as Bane’s account manager. He continued to act as Bane’s account manager until his death. Their relationship was purely professional to start with, but after about a year it developed into a personal friendship which proved to be close and long-lasting. It was Mr Sulmoni who made the funeral arrangements when Bane died, and he too gave an address at his funeral. As their friendship developed, Mr Sulmoni would visit Bane weekly and would help him with personal administrative tasks. Between 1990 and 2000 they used to go on holiday together once a year, usually to France and for a maximum of four nights. 108. For most of the time, Mr Sulmoni found Bane to be coherent and rational. He made his own investment decisions – he insisted on investing in cash rather than shares or bonds – and always appeared to understand the investments which he discussed with Mr Sulmoni. However, his behaviour was often erratic, and even the use of one wrong word could lead him to react unexpectedly and with fury. Mr Sulmoni gives examples of the kinds of unusual behaviour or thoughts that Bane displayed in his presence or to his knowledge. Most of these will by now be familiar: an unusual preoccupation with people’s sexuality, anti-Semitism, the belief that people were trying to poison him, a deep suspicion of doctors, and suspicion that people were after his money. Nevertheless, he could also be very generous, although on an erratic or random basis, and was prone to quixotic gestures such as buying all the plants in a travelling salesman’s lorry. He then employed the salesman as a gardener, and later lent him £5,000 to buy a car. 109. As early as 1992, Bane told Mr Sulmoni that he was the only person he trusted, and that he considered him as his son. When Mr Sulmoni mentioned Bane’s actual son, Zoran, his reaction was to say “he is not my son”. According to Mr Sulmoni’s witness statement, Bane “continually claimed that Zoran had a different father”. In his oral evidence he amplified and modified this statement. In his evidence in chief, he said that what Bane meant by these statements depended upon what mood he was in. In his more aggressive moods, he would say or imply that Zoran was not his biological son, because his wife slept with so many men that he could not be sure of his paternity. In calmer situations, he would use the expression figuratively to indicate that Zoran was not his son because he was not economically successful as he had been himself. In cross-examination, Mr Sulmoni confirmed that in his more aggressive moods Bane would say in so many words that Zoran was not his son because Mirjana slept with other men. However, he only began to make these extreme statements from about 1992 onwards. Before then (that is to say between 1989 and 1992) when Bane talked about Zoran to Mr Sulmoni he just said that he had a son, and nothing more.