Football: Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland concludes first criminal case

Bern, 16.06.2017 - The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has concluded its first case in the series of football-related investigations. A former employee of a Swiss bank has been convicted.

On 15 June 2017, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) secured a conviction by issuing a summary penalty order* to a former employee of a Swiss bank. Around two years after opening the investigations in the football cases, this conviction marks the conclusion of criminal proceedings in Switzerland. These proceedings were coordinated to end at the same time, and benefited from good cooperation between the respective prosecution authorities. The OAG appreciates the efficient coordination with the U.S. authorities.

The former bank employee was convicted of document forgery (Art. 251 Swiss Criminal Code) and a violation of duty to report (Art. 9 and 37 Anti-Money Laundering Act). The payments unlawfully obtained by the bank employee as a result of these offences, which amounted to USD 650,000.-, will be forfeited to the Swiss general treasury.

The summary penalty order in Switzerland is part of a process coordinated between the responsible American prosecution authority (United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York) and the OAG in order to conclude proceedings at the same time. There will be no further proceedings in Switzerland concerning the offences for which the accused has already pled guilty in the USA (in order to avoid a double penalty).

To date, 178 MROS reports of suspected money laundering transactions have been received in connection with the football investigations. The OAG is conducting around 25 separate investigations in football-related cases, and is in the process of analysing seized documents containing some 19 terabytes of data.


* See Art. 352-356 Swiss Criminal Procedure Code:
https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/20052319/index.html#id-ni42-ni43


Address for enquiries

André Marty, Head of Information at the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland; +41 58 464 32 40; info@ba.admin.ch


Publisher

Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland
http://www.ba.admin.ch/

https://www.admin.ch/content/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-67065.html