Two allegedly poor Bernese accused of million-dollar fraud
Published: Wednesday, Feb 28th 2024, 10:40
Updated At: Wednesday, Feb 28th 2024, 10:40
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A 75-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman from Bern have to answer to the courts for fraud amounting to around 17 million francs. They are alleged to have faked a life at subsistence level for years.
In reality, they are said to have had assets worth millions, as the cantonal public prosecutor's office for white-collar crime announced on Wednesday. The two Swiss nationals have not confessed, it said. A date has yet to be set at the economic criminal court.
The accused are at large, as Christof Scheurer, information officer for the public prosecutor's office, told the Keystone-SDA news agency on request. They are a couple who were previously married, then divorced and are now presumably cohabiting.
During searches of the suspects' homes, several cars were seized, as well as over 180 handbags, including luxury brands, golf equipment, a collection of expensive wines and over a dozen fur coats. Bank accounts with a total of over 1.5 million francs were also frozen.
The accused was tracked down by the judiciary in August 2022, when the Bernese Finance Directorate reported the man to the Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Crimes because there were indications of fraudulent behavior. The public prosecutor's office then opened a criminal investigation.
Hidden assets
It now considers it proven that the two individuals were guilty of multiple seizure fraud between 2009 and 2023. They are alleged to have provided untruthful and incomplete information to the debt enforcement office in attachment proceedings totaling over CHF 16 million.
According to the public prosecutor's office, they stated that there were no attachable assets or income. However, the man had assets worth millions. He would have been able to settle the respective claims in full or at least in part.
The two accused are also alleged to have repeatedly attempted to buy back loss certificates from the cantonal and municipal tax authorities amounting to over CHF 8.7 million for just CHF 10,000 to CHF 25,000.
Supplementary benefits and social assistance
The two were also charged with defrauding supplementary benefits and social assistance. In addition, the charges against the man include multiple counts of forgery: he is alleged to have manipulated the parking cards of disabled people in order to be able to use them to park himself.
©Keystone/SDA
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