Facts
The Hilfskonkursmasse X. (bankruptcy estate of X.) appealed against a judgment of the Cantonal Court of the Canton of Thurgau which had not entered into the matter of its appeal concerning civil claims made in the criminal proceedings. X. was the main perpetrator of a fraud involving horizontal drilling rigs in the 1990s in Germany, which had caused damages of approximately 3.45 billion DM to the leasing companies and banks concerned. X. misappropriated at least 325 million DM (approximately 166 million euros) of the fraudulently obtained assets, which were partly invested in his shareholdings in companies outside the A. group and partly in his private assets and those of his ex-wife Z. In order to withhold this fraudulent patrimony from the access of creditors, X. disguised his income through various concealment measures and transferred the secretly acquired funds or assets, in particular to his ex-wife, to various companies they controlled and to the Liechtenstein foundation B., which X. and Z. could freely dispose of in fact. In total, asset values (yachts, jewellery, paintings and real estate) of approximately 350 million DM (approximately 179 million euros) were identified with X. and Z. and largely seized for the bankruptcy estate.Considerations
According to case law, the bankruptcy estate, in which the individual asset interests of the creditors in Switzerland are pooled, could be admitted as a private prosecutor in the criminal proceedings against the accused Z., insofar as it claims the…