Conviction for Forgery of Documents and Obtaining an Excessive Quota

Facts

This case involved butchers who made false statements about the number of slaughters carried out in order to obtain a higher import quota. The public prosecutor brought charges of continued false certification, fraud, and forgery of documents.

The Federal Court had to decide whether the butchers' reports on the slaughter numbers should be considered false certification under Art. 251 of the Swiss Criminal Code and whether the obtaining of an excessive quota should be punished as fraud under Art. 148 of the Swiss Criminal Code or Art. 14 of the Administrative Criminal Law.

Considerations

The Federal Court reached the following conclusions

The butchers' reports on the slaughter numbers are not intended and suitable to prove the truth of the information. Therefore, there is no false certification under Art. 251 of the Swiss Criminal Code.

The import quota represents an asset, but the obtaining of an excessive quota does not fall under the offense of fraud under Art. 148 of the Swiss Criminal Code, as the authorities do not dispose of federal assets, but act on the basis of sovereign rights.…