Swiss man wanted for 26 years arrested in Italy

Swiss wanted for 26 years arrested in Italy Keystone-SDA

A Swiss man, now aged 60, has been arrested in Bari, Italy. He had been wanted for 26 years for a fraud involving more than $20 million (CHF15.9 million), committed with accomplices in New York.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The arrest took place off the coast of Bari on a catamaran checked by the customs police, according to a report by the Italian news agency ansa published on Monday.

The man, whose name has not been released, is accused of criminal conspiracy to commit fraud involving financial securities and of laundering illicitly acquired income, according to the arrest warrant issued in 1999 in the United States.

+ Swiss national under investigation for fraudulent bankruptcy in Italy

During the inspection, customs officers checked the identities of the people on board. They then realised that the man was wanted. After his arrest, the suspect was questioned by a judge in Bari and taken into custody. At the same time, extradition proceedings to the US were initiated.

Contacted by the Swiss News Agency Keystone-ATS, the Federal Office of Justice said it had no knowledge of the case.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

How we work 

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]