Czech money launderers see sentences cut for large-scale fraud
Two businessmen who were convicted in 2013 for large-scale money laundering offences have had their sentences reduced by a Swiss court.
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.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.