Having a good driving hand is not enough. To be a racing driver, you need money. Lots of money. Finding sponsors is therefore essential, and this is even more true when you are an amateur driver like Peter*, for whom races often cost more than they brought in. But the speed freak, now retired, could count on the services of his father, who managed the entire financial side of his career. He was thus able to take part in international endurance races, with many podiums to his name, as well as in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
However, it now appears that the father’s financing may not have been as stellar as his son’s driving prowess. He is said to have embezzled millions belonging to his employer, explains the “Berner Zeitung”. In mid-2023, the newspaper already revealed that the cement group Vigier Holding had discovered financial irregularities within its subsidiary Vigier Beton Berner Oberland and had filed a criminal complaint against a manager. It now turns out that the employee was Peter’s father.
He is suspected of having secretly transferred, from 2010 to 2023, some 24 million francs, from several companies of the holding company, to his own accounts, as well as those of people and companies close to him. Of this sum, approximately 4.3 million francs are said to have been used to finance Peter’s races, as well as to pay him a salary, via a motorsport company created by the driver and his parents. As a corollary, the son is now suspected of money laundering.
The father denied everything. Regarding the payments to his son, he claims that it was a sponsorship contract. Moreover, the driver did indeed wear the Vigier logo on his overalls and cars. But documents were only found for the first three years. After that, nothing. Questioned by the “Berner Zeitung”, the father insisted on the innocence of his son, who finds himself “implicated in an affair with which he has absolutely nothing to do”, as well as his own: “I did not steal anything. In the archives and in my files, there are written agreements for all transfers.”
A sumptuous lifestyle
The former executive led a lavish lifestyle. The documents obtained by the Bernese daily refer to several cars, a boat and jewellery. The public prosecutor has therefore confiscated a whole series of assets from both his home and that of his son, in particular his pension fund assets of around 1 million francs, four cars and two motorcycles. As the procedure is complex, any trial will not take place for two years. In the meantime, the presumption of innocence remains in place.
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