Swiss prosecutors target financial blog Inside Paradeplatz

Vincenz case: Zurich investigation targets Inside Paradeplatz Keystone-SDA

The Zurich Public Prosecutor's Office have searched the offices of the financial portal Inside Paradeplatz in Zurich, according to its manager, journalist Lukas Hässig.

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Hässig and his journal are the subject of criminal proceedings in connection with the case of Pierin Vincenz, former CEO of Raiffeisen bank.

A fortnight ago, the Zurich public prosecutor’s office ‘raided’ the offices of Inside Paradeplatz, Lukas Hässig wrote on his online portal today. “The prosecutor in charge of the case and half a dozen police officers searched the station and then the journalist’s private home,” it reads. They took away a laptop and a mobile phone, as well as several documents.

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Contacted by Keystone-ATS, the Zurich authorities confirmed that it had conducted a search for evidence. Criminal proceedings are under way against Hässig on suspicion of breaching banking secrecy.

The start of the investigation

For the record, the online portal Inside Paradeplatz kicked off the investigation in 2016, raising questions about certain Raiffeisen shareholdings in four companies that were later taken over by the St Gallen-based bank, and about the relationship between Pierin Vincenz and Beat Stocker, former head of the credit card issuing company Aduno (now Viseca).

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The appeal trial of the former CEO of Raiffeisen and his co-defendants will begin in the summer of 2026. In the first instance, Pierin Vincenz was sentenced in 2022 to three years and nine months in prison for fraud, repeated mismanagement and passive bribery. For his part, Beat Stocker was sentenced to four years in prison.

Following the journalist’s investigation, internal investigations conducted by Raiffeisen bank eventually led to the intervention of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma).

According to Hässig, Beat Stocker had already threatened him in 2017, accusing him of violating banking secrecy. It was also the former head of Aduno who called for him to be investigated, the journalist wrote.

Translated from Italian by DeepL/mga

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