The Czech citizens were jailed and fined for their part in the Czech Mostecka Uhelna Spolecnost (MUS) coal company privatisation scandal when they manipulated stock prices to their advantage through offshore schemes.
The money laundering scheme embezzled some CHF2 billion ($2 billion) in an illegal operation that ran through the Czech Republic, Switzerland, the Isle of Man, Cyprus, France, Austria, Hungary, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.
Although the company in question was Czech, part of the original trial took place in Switzerland because a significant chunk of the money passed through Swiss banks and because it was first brought to light by a Lausanne businessman in 2004.
In a verdict released on Tuesday, the Federal Court reduced their sentences for good behaviour while serving time and because of the “excessive” duration of criminal proceedings, which took 15 years to complete.
One of the convicted men saw his original two-year prison sentence halved and the other also saw a significant reduction to his original custodial sentence.
More significantly for the duo, the Lausanne-based court also slashed the amount of money they were fined.
The convicted me were also saddled with compensation demands amounting to millions of francs during their original court case.
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Czech money-laundering case opens
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The six defendants are accused of having bought up 97 per cent of the Czech Mostecka Uhelna Spolecnost (MUS) coal company’s shares and then manipulated stock prices to their advantage through offshore schemes. Today, MUS is part of the larger Czech Coal Group, which is serving as a plaintiff in the case. Although the company…
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