It is an unusual affair that the Federal Prosecutor's Office has just revealed on Thursday. The MPC in fact accuses two Swiss people of “qualified money laundering”. They are said to have moved across borders, for at least four years, some 34 million euros, one million Swiss francs and around 830 kilos of gold.
The MPC accuses the two defendants, aged 56 and 63, of having received “from people unknown to them” assets of criminal origin, in particular in the form of cash. This in Italy, Holland and Germany. Assets then brought to Switzerland between spring 2019 and June 2023.
According to the prosecution, the two Swiss people transported the money in hiding places set up in vehicles. In Italy especially, they exchanged this money for gold which they then transported to Switzerland without declaring it, explains the MPC. After a stopover in Switzerland at the companies of one of the defendants, they crossed the border and transported their fortune by plane to Istanbul or Dubai, or by car or truck to Germany and Turkey.
According to the OAG, the assets moved across borders come from internationally organized drug smuggling or large drug trafficking operations in Europe, “which the defendants knew”.
The two Swiss people, arrested in June 2023, earned some 500,000 francs in this traffic. They admit to having moved these assets without respecting the declaration obligations in force, according to the MPC. They are therefore accused under “simplified procedure”. And will be tried by the Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona.
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