Partial Conviction for Ineffectual Attempt of Falsification of Documents and Annulment of the Judgment of the High Court of the Canton of Aargau

Facts

The appellant, [X.] , was a member of the board of directors and director of the executive board of [A.] -Holding. He was convicted by the District Court of Baden for multiple attempted forgery of documents to 8 months imprisonment. The High Court of the Canton of Aargau reduced the sentence to 6 months imprisonment. [X.] filed both a constitutional complaint and a federal appeal for annulment and requested the annulment of the judgment.

The indictment accuses [X.] of having failed to disclose the pledge of the fixed-term deposit of [A.] -Holding with [D.] -Bank as a contingent liability in the annual accounts of [A.] -Finanz AG and [A.] -Holding as well as in the consolidated group accounts. Furthermore, he allegedly issued two untrue declarations of completeness of [A.] -Finanz AG and [A.] -Holding regarding the closing date of 31 March 1992.

Considerations

The Federal Court examined the constitutional complaint and the federal appeal for annulment. It came to the conclusion that the constitutional complaint was to be dismissed, insofar as it could be considered. The federal appeal for annulment was partially upheld, the judgment of the High Court of the Canton of Aargau was annulled, and the case was remanded to the lower court for a new decision.

The Federal Court found that the lower court had rightly assumed that the intended pledge of the fixed-term deposit should have been disclosed as a contingent liability in the annual accounts of [A.] -Finanz AG and in the consolidated group accounts pursuant to Art. 670 para. 1 aCO. The failure to make these entries was to be qualified as falsification of documents.

However,…