Facts
The appellant, a lawyer, was convicted by the High Court of the Canton of Zug of qualified money laundering (Art. 305bis para. 2 SCC) and sentenced to a conditional prison term of five months and an unconditional fine of 60 daily rates of CHF 320.--. The appellant had received from his client [C.] three checks in the millions, which originated from an investment scam. He cashed the checks and transferred the money to accounts of his company [E. AG] , carried out currency exchanges, and partially withdrew the money in cash.
The appellant filed a criminal appeal and requested that the judgment of the High Court be reversed and that he be acquitted of the charge of qualified money laundering. He argued that the lower court had arbitrarily established the facts and violated the principle of in dubio pro reo.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the appeal and came to the conclusion that the lower court had not arbitrarily established the facts. The lower court had found the appellant guilty of qualified money laundering because he knew or should have known that the assets came from a crime and had taken an action that was capable of preventing the determination of the origin, discovery, or confiscation of the assets.
The Federal Court found that the lower court had rightly found the appellant guilty of qualified money laundering because he knew or should have known that the assets came from a crime and had taken an action that was capable of preventing the determination…