Swiss authorities have frozen SFr160 million ($203 million) in suspected bribes and assets given by companies for securing contracts, the Sonntag newspaper reports.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office told the newspaper on Sunday that the funds were deposited in Swiss accounts over the past four years by multinational companies for the purpose of bribing officials around the world to secure contracts.
A spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the information to the Swiss News Agency.
The bribes came in the form of cash or gifts such as holiday homes.
Around ten foreign civil servants were involved, the newspaper said. The report didn't name any individual companies.
All rights reserved. The content of the website by swissinfo.ch is copyrighted. It is intended for private use only. Any other use of the website content beyond the use stipulated above, particularly the distribution, modification, transmission, storage and copying requires prior written consent of swissinfo.ch. Should you be interested in any such use of the website content, please contact us via contact@swissinfo.ch.
As regards the use for private purposes, it is only permitted to use a hyperlink to specific content, and to place it on your own website or a website of third parties. The swissinfo.ch website content may only be embedded in an ad-free environment without any modifications. Specifically applying to all software, folders, data and their content provided for download by the swissinfo.ch website, a basic, non-exclusive and non-transferable license is granted that is restricted to the one-time downloading and saving of said data on private devices. All other rights remain the property of swissinfo.ch. In particular, any sale or commercial use of these data is prohibited.