Four sentenced in second European Kings Club trial

A Berne court has handed down four suspended prison sentences to former Bernese employees of the European Kings Club pyramid scheme. They were accused of defrauding investors out of millions of francs. Two others were acquitted.

The sentences, of up to three months suspended, come after a trial earlier this month found seven other Kings Club members guilty of breaching Switzerland’s banking secrecy law. The court sentenced them to suspended jail sentences of between five and 14 months.

In the latest trial, the accused were charged with helping con more than 1,500 investors out of SFr17.5 million in a pyramid scheme. The court finally decided that two of the accused were implicated in 20 cases of fraud totalling SFr28,000.

Two others were considered to be accomplices, while the remaining two were acquitted because they had broken off all involvement with the European Kings Club by the time local leaders were arrested.

The six people who were on trial will have to pay SFr7,000 in legal costs. The two who were acquitted will also have to pay up as they breached Switzerland’s banking secrecy law.

The European Kings Club defrauded some 30,000 people in Switzerland of up to SFr300 million.

swissinfo with agencies