“He felt drawn to some degree into the erotic scene”

Scanners in about a dozen law firms in and around Zurich have been working hard since Wednesday afternoon. Because the postman literally brought a big mail: exactly 1,200 pages of written justification for the decisions in the Vincenz case – in paper form. To deal with the flood of papers, each page is digitized so that lawyers and clerical staff can also electronically search for the document based on specific criteria and keywords.

Blick is the wonderful work of the Zurich District Court. The voluminous decision reads like the meticulous protocol of the most important Swiss economic process since the Swissair case. The reasoning scrupulously lists which of the defendants was actually present on the individual days of the trial and when. Pierin Vincenz (66), one of the two main defendants, was absent for two days as his lawyer was unavailable due to other appointments. The other, Beat Stocker (62), was present at the hearing every day.

A trip to the red light district takes up a lot of space

It quickly becomes clear why it would take at least 273 days after the decision was announced on April 11, 2022, to justify the court’s decision in writing. The court only needs 333 pages to present the facts regarding the company’s transactions, namely the explanation of how Vincenz and Stocker were said to have illegally enriched themselves at the expense of their employers through their involvement with Commtrain, Investnet or Eurokaution. For this, the judges sentenced Vincenz to 3.75 years and Stocker to 4 years in prison.

The judges also give ample coverage to Vincenz’s overspending and trips to the red light district. The justification for the sentence includes, among other things, “unlimited spending as part of a trip to Marrakech and in particular at numerous cabarets in Switzerland”. Below you can read that the accused Vincenz was “to some extent influenced by the erotic scene”.

What the court also charges Vincenz with is lack of remorse and failure to confess. It also “has not made any effort to recoup the damage” to date, especially in connection with excessive expenses. But this will also be difficult for a man in debt, living on an AHV pension of CHF 2,000 per month, as stated in the decision.

Penalty reduced thanks to media reports

In addition, the court carefully calculates how Vincenz’s prison sentence will be measured. In the Investnet case, judges rated qualified disloyal business management as the most serious offense and sentenced the former banker to 27 months in prison. There is 24 months for all other corporate actions plus 3 months for related bribery offences. The court reduced the sentence from 9 months to 45 months, or 3.75 years, for “temporary media reporting”.

Lawyers for Vincenz, Stocker and Co. have 20 days to file a written appeal with the Supreme Court of the Canton of Zurich, just like the prosecutor’s office. This means that by February 1, plaintiff and defendant must indicate whether they wish to appeal the decision in whole or in part.