Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Here are the latest news and stories making the rounds here in Switzerland today.

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

In the News: more financial crimes; Warhol sets a record; and Lausanne announces a cannabis pilot.

• White collar crime is up in Switzerland, according to the Forensic Fraud Barometer compiled by consulting firm KPMG. It found that courts in Switzerland dealt with 68 major cases of white-collar crime last year, involving amounts coming to CHF567 million ($571 million). That’s a 30% increase in the number of cases compared with 2020, and CHF200 million more in damages. The hike was in part due to a single major case of white-collar crime that caused CHF300 million in damages.
• An iconic Andy Warhol painting of Marilyn Monroe sold for $195 million at a Christie’s auction in New York last night. This is the most expensive painting from the 20th century ever sold at auction. As mentioned in yesterday’s briefing, the painting was held in the collection of Swiss art dealers Thomas and Doris Ammann and all proceeds from the sale will go to support healthcare and education programmes for children.
• Lausanne is to join several other cities in Switzerland in launching a pilot project to sell cannabis. The project, called Cann-L, is entrusted to non-profit group Addiction Suisse, which, in addition to selling organic and locally produced cannabis, will include education and risk prevention activities. A change in the narcotics law came into force in 2021, which paved the way for pilot projects to determine how policies should evolve to curb the illegal market.

Keystone / Alessandro Della Bella

Another Russian villa is seized

Swiss public broadcaster RSI has been on the hunt for sanctioned Russian oligarchs with assets tucked away in the southern canton of Ticino. Today it reported that cantonal authorities seized the villa of Russian senator AndreiExternal link Klishas on March 4. Klishas, who is on the sanctions list, is close to Russian President Putin and has expressed support for military aggression in Ukraine. In total, Swiss authorities have seized 11 properties in four cantons.

But the big question is whether anyone is living there? The property isn’t exactly a humble holiday home that goes unnoticed. It’s a 1,000 square metre villa with two floors and an indoor swimming pool so surely someone must know something about the owner(s). RSI asked the mayor of the town, who said he had never seen the owner and wasn’t aware of the area where the villa is located. A neighbour told RSI that the house hasn’t been inhabited for years but it is still tended to on a regular basis by gardeners and cleaners.

© Keystone / Ennio Leanza

Life in the English-speaking capital in Switzerland

Where can you find the most native English speakers in Switzerland? Surprise, it’s not Basel or Zurich city. It’s Küsnacht on lake Zurich. Around 17% of the 13,000 or so people living in Küsnacht say English is their main language. That compares to around 12.2% in Geneva and 11% in Zurich.

The beautiful scenery, multilingual schools, and proximity to high paying jobs in Zurich make it a popular destination with expatsExternal link, explains the Tages-Anzeiger today. The paper’s journalist went on a reportage in the city looking to meet some of these “English speaking natives”, but they weren’t as easy to find as expected.

Yet the people he did speak to said that locals and English speakers seem to get along well, and some locals even commented on the positive side of the city feeling more “cosmopolitan”. But it’s not all hugs and handshakes. Many locals are sceptical about the “Englisierung” of the local Swiss German dialect.