Poursuite pénale de l'entreprise

Insightful report from Transparency International assessing how Swtitzerland is implementing its antibribery, antimoneylaundering provisions.

Recently, December 2022, ABB was fined CHF4 million ($4.31 million) by Swiss prosecutors after it was found guilty of industrial-scale bribery linked to the contract rights to build a coal-fired power plant in SouthAfrica.

The report evidences that there have been just 10 such convictions in Switzerland over the past 20 years.

It is most likely that Swiss companies involved in big international corruption or moneylaundering scandals are generally held accountable abroad, but not in Switzerland.

The report states that one reason could be that in Switzerland, companies don’t have enough incentives to report such issues and to cooperate with judges. It also underlines the lack of consistency and predictibility in the usages, calling for a more harmonized practice.

To this end, TI recommends to publish publicly accessible and binding directives about their methods of enforcing corporate criminal liability.

The General Attorney noticed some contradictions between different reports from the same NGO assessing corruption enforcement practice, but acknowledged the current maximum fine is not deterrent enough, and calls, among other proposal, to work on a whistleblower legislation.

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