The Federal Prosecutor’s Office (CPO) has charged two Swiss nationals with qualified money laundering before the Federal Criminal Court. He accuses the two defendants of having moved across borders, for at least four years and as part of a conspiracy network acting at the international level, assets of criminal origin representing 34 million euros, one million Swiss francs and approximately 830 kilos of gold, without respecting the declaration obligations in force. As the defendants admit the facts, they are accused under simplified procedure.
The two defendants were arrested in June 2023 as part of a joint operation with the Italian authorities. This operation targeted a criminal network that appears to be involved in the smuggling of gold and other valuable items as well as money laundering activities. In total, ten alleged members of this network were arrested during this action.
The MPC accuses the two defendants, aged 56 and 63, of having received from people unknown to them, in Italy, Holland and Germany, and bringing to Switzerland, between spring 2019 and June 2023, assets of criminal origin in the form in particular of cash. According to the prosecution, the defendants transported the money in caches set up in vehicles. Mainly in Italy, they exchanged the money they had gone to collect for gold which they then transported to Switzerland without declaring it.
According to the prosecution, it was mainly the 63-year-old defendant who carried out these journeys on behalf of his younger partner. After a stopover in Switzerland at the 56-year-old defendant’s companies, the two men crossed the border again and transported the assets by plane to Istanbul or Dubai, or by car or truck to Germany and Turkey.
According to the OAG’s accusations, the assets moved across borders in this case originate from internationally organized drug smuggling or large-scale drug trafficking operations in Europe, which the defendants knew, or at least believed to be a possibility they could live with.
Through this smuggling, the two defendants subtracted approximately 34 million euros, one million Swiss francs and 830 kilos of gold from state confiscation rights, or made tracing difficult. They made a gain of around 500,000 Swiss francs and were guilty, according to the prosecution, of qualified money laundering.
Since their arrest in June 2023, the 63-year-old defendant has remained in preventive detention until the beginning of November 2023, and his younger accomplice, until the end of September 2024. Both defendants recognize the facts, which allows for a simplified procedure. . If the court considers that the conditions for a judgment in simplified procedure are met, the facts, sanctions and civil claims contained in the indictment are assimilated to a judgment. Otherwise, the file is sent to the public prosecutor’s office to be processed through an ordinary procedure.
