Zurich public prosecutor’s office examines further appeal in Seith case
Published: Friday, Dec 13th 2024, 13:00
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The Zurich public prosecutor's office is examining a possible further appeal in the case of the German lawyer Eckart Seith. The High Court of the Canton of Zurich decided on Thursday to discontinue the proceedings against Seith because a former public prosecutor may have been biased in the case.
The Zurich public prosecutor's office is surprised by the decision of the High Court, as it announced on Friday. A decision on a possible appeal to the Federal Supreme Court will be made after examining the written reasons for the High Court's ruling.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the High Court only dealt with formal aspects of the proceedings. The important legal issues at stake and the accusations confirmed by the district court at first instance were not assessed in terms of content.
The High Court announced on Thursday that the proceedings against Seith and two co-accused former bank employees were to be discontinued. The public prosecutor's office has accused them of economic intelligence services and other offenses.
With the help of the two bank employees, Seith is said to have obtained internal documents from the Swiss bank J. Safra Sarasin and passed them on to German investigators. This involved illegal cum-ex share transactions that caused billions in losses to the German treasury.
One of Sarasin's clients was the German drugstore king Erwin Müller, who lost millions when the Sarasin fund collapsed. Müller then accused the bank of having given him incorrect advice and sued it with the help of lawyer Eckart Seith. The Ulm Regional Court ruled in his favor. It ordered the bank to pay 45 million euros in damages.
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