Some individuals accumulate dozens of bankruptcies
Published: Wednesday, Dec 20th 2023, 12:20
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There are people in Switzerland who collect bankruptcies like stamps or garden gnomes. One man is at the inglorious top of the list: a total of 78 company bankruptcies in the last ten years can be attributed to the unknown "bankruptcy rider".
This makes him the biggest bankrupt in Switzerland in terms of numbers, according to an analysis published on Wednesday by the company credit agency Crif. But even more people in Switzerland are responsible for dozens of company bankruptcies. For example, another man was jointly responsible for the bankruptcy of 75 companies, another led 54 and another 44 companies into bankruptcy.
A total of 38 company bankruptcies are the work of two men. The fact that they are men is not surprising: 93 percent of all those who have led at least three companies into bankruptcy in recent years are men, as Crif has found.
However, there are also women who can certainly compete with the male bankrupts: The biggest "bankruptcy aunt" has had 35 companies go bankrupt in the last ten years.
Increasingly frequent cases of bankruptcy riding
However, the fact that individuals are involved in so many company bankruptcies is indicative of criminal energy. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of cases of so-called bankruptcy hijacking in Switzerland.
The principle is as follows: Dubious businessmen take over companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy and then do some business in the name of the company before they finally drive the company into bankruptcy. The bankruptcy riders are therefore also known as "corporate morticians". Some even use bankruptcy as a business model by setting up companies, getting rich and not paying the bills, then filing for bankruptcy and setting up the next company.
However, Crif's analysis also shows that only a very small number of people have actually caused many company bankruptcies. At 1,244, more than half of the total number of people were responsible for just three bankruptcies. A total of 91 people were jointly responsible for ten or more company bankruptcies.
Hardly any individual companies
According to the analysis, most of the bankrupts (267) live in Zurich according to their current place of residence listed in the commercial register, followed by those who have moved to an unknown location. Most of the company headquarters of the bankrupt companies examined were located in the canton of Zurich with 1252, followed by Ticino with 900, Vaud, Geneva and Zug with between 700 and 900 companies each.
The majority of the companies that went bankrupt were limited liability companies (53%) and public limited companies (38%), while sole proprietorships were the least common at 8%. Half of the companies examined in 2022 were older than 6 or 7 years, half were younger.
For the analysis, Crif examined all persons listed in the commercial register who had three or more bankruptcies in the last ten years. The authors of the study only took into account persons who held an active mandate in the company at the time of the bankruptcy. Liquidators, authorized signatories or persons listed in the register under "also listed", who only have a limited influence on the success of the company, were not counted.
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