Facts

The Federal Court dealt with a case of document forgery and complicity in breach of official duty. The appellant, [S.] , was found guilty by the Federal Criminal Court of document forgery (Art. 251 Swiss Criminal Code) and complicity in breach of official duty (Art. 314 Swiss Criminal Code in conjunction with Art. 25 and 26 Swiss Criminal Code) and sentenced to a fine.

The facts of the case can be summarized as follows

  • The opposing party 1, the Swiss Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA), had a real estate portfolio worth around 3 billion Swiss francs. In the course of a disinvestment process, the sale of several properties, mainly in the canton of Ticino, led to the opening of a criminal investigation against several SUVA employees and other parties involved.
  • One of the incriminated real estate sales concerned the property in Kriens. The appellant acted as a real estate broker in connection with this sale. [W.] was the head of the real estate department and [V.] was the portfolio manager directly involved in the sale of the Kriens property.
  • The Federal Criminal Court concluded that the appellant had invoiced SUVA a commission of CHF 107,600 for mediation efforts that were never actually provided. [W.] and [V.] had arranged for the transfer of this amount to the appellant.

Considerations

The Federal Court confirmed the jurisdiction of the Federal Criminal Court, as [W.] and [V.] as heads of the real estate department and portfolio manager of SUVA were to be classified as officials in the criminal law sense. Their activities in real estate management serve to secure the pensions of the insured and are thus part of the public duties of SUVA.

However, with regard to document forgery, the Federal Court concluded that although the appellant's fee note was factually untrue, it did not have an increased…