Conviction for qualified misappropriation, fraud, and qualified breach of trust

Facts

[A.] and [B.] founded the [C.] Ltd. with its registered office in the British Virgin Islands. The operational headquarters of this company were located in Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand, where the two appellants had emigrated from Switzerland in 1994. [A.] and [B.] concluded administration contracts with around 270 investors through [C.] Ltd. and conducted foreign exchange and precious metal trading with their assets. Through personal withdrawals, transfers to [D.] and customers, silver transactions, and disregard of a stop-loss clause agreed with the majority of the injured parties, a total loss of clearly more than CHF 10 million was incurred. In 2011, [A.] and [B.] terminated the business activities of [C.] Ltd. and went into hiding.

On August 25, 2011, the Public Prosecutor's Office III of the Canton of Zurich opened a criminal investigation. On March 30, 2012, the arrest warrant, the order for international wanted person search, and the request for extradition were issued. On September 21, 2013, [B.] was arrested in Cambodia and taken into custody at Zurich Airport on October 13, 2013. On October 17, 2013, [A.] was also arrested in Cambodia and accordingly transferred to Switzerland.

On July 20, 2017, the District Court of Zurich sentenced [B.] and [A.] to prison sentences of four years and three months, and four years and six months, respectively, for qualified misappropriation, fraud, qualified breach of trust, and breach of trust. [B.] and [A.] appealed against this judgment, and the Public Prosecutor's Office filed a cross-appeal. On January 30, 2019, the High Court of the Canton of Zurich found [B.] and [A.] guilty of multiple counts of qualified misappropriation, fraud, qualified breach of trust, and multiple counts of breach of trust.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court considers the Swiss criminal jurisdiction to be justified, as both the effect of the appellants' actions and the success of the actions occurred in Zurich, and the first prosecution actions were taken there. The appellants unsuccessfully claimed that they had not been formally extradited to…