The Zurich district court hands down years-long sentences to former Raiffeisen CEO and his main accomplice.
Former Raiffeisen CEO Pierin Vincenz was handed a three-year and nine-month prison sentence today, along with fines, after he was found guilty today of various charges by the district court in Zurich.
His accomplice Beat Stocker received a harsher sentence and is to serve four years in prison, although their time in pre-trial detention will be credited to the two main defendants as time served.
Variety of Charges
Court president Sebastian Aeppli declared Vincenz guilty of the main charges in both expense reporting and charges relating to shadow shareholdings in company transactions. The court considered Vincenz to be guilty of multiple counts of embezzlement, unfaithful management of a business, and multiple counts of falsification of expense documents.
Four other defendants were ordered to pay a proportion of the costs of the proceedings and in some cases conditional fines. A secondary defendant is considered unfit to stand trial for health reasons, resulting in proceedings against him being discontinued.
Longer Sentence
In Vincenz's case, the prosecution demanded a prison sentence of six years, minus the 106 days the now 65-year-old spent in pre-trial detention in 2018, in addition to the seizure of private assets amounting to more than 8.9 million Swiss francs ($9.5 million). In Stocker's case, the requested forfeiture of assets was even higher, around 16 million francs. The prosecution sought a six-year prison for him, taking into account the time spent in pre-trial detention.
All charges were denied by the defendants who can now appeal through the courts.
