The Attorney General of Switzerland is bringing charges against four people in the bribery affair involving IT contracts with the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
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Among the four are three entrepreneurs as well as a former SECOExternal link employee in charge of procurement, announced the attorney general’s office in a statementExternal link on Tuesday.
Specifically, they have been charged with bribery (active and passive) in relation to awarding several hundred SECO IT contracts worth a total of CHF99 million ($98.9 million).
The SECO employee is accused of giving out contracts worth millions of francs without a public bidding process for IT projects, as well as accepting money and other favours worth over CHF1.7 million over a ten-year period. The entrepreneurs are accused of criminal mismanagement and bribery.
The scandal was brought to light in 2014 by investigative journalists working for the Tages-Anzeiger and Der Bund newspapers. The case now goes to trial at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.