Two ‘poor’ Swiss accused of multimillion-franc fraud

During searches of the suspects’ homes, several cars were seized, as well as over 180 handbags, including luxury brands, golf equipment, a collection of expensive wines and over a dozen fur coats. KEYSTONE

A 75-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman from Bern have to appear in court for fraud totalling around CHF17 million ($19.3 million). They are alleged to have faked a life at subsistence level for years.

In reality, they are said to have had assets worth millions, the cantonal public prosecutor’s office for economic offences said on Wednesday. The two Swiss nationals have not confessed, it said. A date has yet to be set at the economic offences court.

The accused are at large, Christof Scheurer, information officer for the public prosecutor’s office, told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA. They are a couple who were previously married, then divorced and are now presumably cohabiting.

During searches of the suspects’ homes, several cars were seized, as well as over 180 handbags, including luxury brands, golf equipment, a collection of expensive wines and over a dozen fur coats. Bank accounts totalling over CHF1.5 million were also frozen.

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The accused were tracked down by the judiciary in August 2022, when the Bernese finance directorate reported the man to the public prosecutor’s office for economic offences because there were indications of fraudulent behaviour. The public prosecutor’s office then opened a criminal investigation.

Hidden assets

It now considers it proven that the two individuals were guilty of multiple cases of attachment fraud between 2009 and 2023. They are alleged to have provided untruthful and incomplete information to the debt enforcement office in attachment proceedings totalling over CHF16 million.

According to the public prosecutor’s office, they stated that there were no attachable assets and income. However, the man had assets totalling millions. He would have been able to settle the respective claims in full or at least in part.

The two accused are also alleged to have repeatedly tried to buy back loss certificates from the cantonal and municipal tax authorities totalling over CHF8.7 million for just CHF10,000 to CHF25,000.

The two were also charged with defrauding supplementary benefits and social welfare. In addition, the charges against the man include multiple counts of forgery: he is alleged to have manipulated the parking cards of disabled people in order to be able to use them for parking himself.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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