The Higher Court of the Canton of Zurich overturned the verdict of a district court in the case against the former head of the Swiss banking group Raiffeisen, Pierin Vincenz, and four other defendants due to serious procedural errors and referred the case back to the public prosecutor’s office.
In the opinion of the higher court, the central rights in criminal proceedings to be heard and to have an indictment that complies with the legal requirements had been violated. In 2022, the Zurich District Court sentenced Vincenz to a prison sentence of three years and nine months for, among other things, fraud, forgery of documents and passive bribery. The justice system’s sights included, among other things, a series of company takeovers that Vincenz was responsible for as Raiffeisen boss and as president of the credit card company Aduno.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, Vincenz was covertly involved in the takeover targets. According to the public prosecutor’s office, he thereby made an unlawful personal profit of almost nine million francs. He also charged the institute with expenses for which there was no business reason. He spent over 200,000 francs in strip clubs and contact bars. For Vincenz, these expenses were “business-related.” However, the court clearly went too far in understanding that virtually all of a business person’s expenses could be recorded as expenses.
The Swiss “Banker of the Year” was acquitted on several charges in 2014. Four other defendants were convicted of part of the offenses, one was completely acquitted and the proceedings against another were dropped. The public prosecutor’s office, the accused and others involved appealed against the verdict. Several defendants raised procedural objections to the first instance proceedings and demanded that the verdict be overturned. The higher court now came to the conclusion that the principles of fair hearing had been denied. For example, the indictment was not translated for a defendant who did not speak German sufficiently. In addition, the “sometimes excessive” indictment went beyond the legal framework. This made it more difficult for the accused to defend themselves effectively.
The public prosecutor’s office must now correct the procedural deficiencies and then file a new charge at the Zurich District Court. According to the higher court’s decision, the risk of a statute of limitations is “not of primary importance”.