Vincenz case back to square one: Shame for ambitious prosecutor

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April 13, 2022 must have been a happy day for Marc Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel (60). The Zurich prosecutor had not only won the most important white-collar criminal case of the last decade against former Raiffeisen CEO Pierin Vincenz (67). No, he could say he defeated star lawyer Lorenz Erni (73) as the cherry on the cake. This is considered the “terror of the accusation.”

The prison sentence Vincenz received of three years and nine months was important to Jean-Richard. The grandson of the founder of the Swiss watch industry is considered by his colleagues to be a good lawyer and a very good theorist. However, its success rate in court is quite mediocre; especially in notable and attention-grabbing cases.

Erni 3, Jean-Richard 0

Jean-Richard failed in two such cases: in 2003 he tried to prove insider trading to billionaire investor Martin Ebner (78). After a meeting with Pirelli management in 1998, he sold blocks of shares in the company and made a profit of 35,666 francs. The prosecutor appeared in court – and how: For the judge, Jean-Richard was not even supposed to take the case to court. Ebner was acquitted and received compensation of 30,000 francs.

Jean-Richard’s rival at the time: Lorenz Erni. Just as two years later, the Zurich prosecutor filed charges against banker and current Senior Vice President National Assemblyman Thomas Matter (57), also for insider trading. After he spoke very openly about the suspected crime in an interview with “Bilanz”, he was removed from the case on the grounds that he was biased, upon Erni’s complaint.

The singing prosecutor

Even if the insider crime article in Switzerland was viewed as a toothless tiger and there were almost no convictions: Jean-Richard, who had been promoted to head of the white-collar criminal law department at the Zurich prosecutor’s office, could not afford another sentence. beat. At his trial, Vincenz brought out the big guns in the indictment, interrogation and defense.

This certainly fits Jean-Richard’s personality, which is considered ambitious and certainly versatile: in addition to his legal career, he also trained as a stock market investor. He even participated in the Swiss qualifying round of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010 with a pilgrimage song.

There was criticism even before the hearing

Maybe it’s all a bit much? With the overturning of the verdict in the Vincenz case, the aura of Erni’s conqueror collapses like a house of cards. Even before the trial, there were criticisms of the indictment: “The entire indictment is surprisingly shaky,” the famous criminal lawyer Marcel Niggli (63) told the “Tages-Anzeiger” newspaper at the time. He was “confused” by how little the prosecution had put forward compared to the years-long investigation.

Jean-Richard will have already prepared his own version: he once wrote that the prosecutor’s task is not “to reach a guilty verdict” but “to bring the truth to light.” The truth is this: The biggest criminal case against white-collar workers has been restarted because Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel made “serious procedural errors”, according to the Supreme Court.

Source :Blick