[ad_1]
Two Brits cheated Swiss investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Local authorities did nothing, the United States attacked.
Roger Knox is a great mountaineer and a trickster millionaire. The Swiss authorities let him go. He faces 15 years in prison in the United States.
They felt safe in Switzerland. Here they lived, here they bought houses, luxury cars. And from here on, they allegedly cheated other people totaling more than $ 220 million: Roger Knox and John Willis *, two Brits.
Today the two are awaiting their test in the US with an electronic bracelet around their ankle. Knox pleaded guilty. As part of a deal, he will be sentenced to between 12 and 15 years in prison. Willis denies all the allegations. The maximum possible penalty of 145 years in prison hangs over him like the sword of Damocles.
According to US prosecutors, both had the same business model. They would have secretly bought large amounts of shares in small companies for wealthy clients, manipulated prices, and then threw all the shares onto the market at once, which immediately rendered the junk papers worthless.
Most of his clients were based in the US, the rigged companies were listed on the US stock exchanges, and the victims are also Americans. But the alleged scammers: They were in Switzerland. Knox had an office in a town of 400 in Valais, and Willi’s company was registered in a private jet hangar at Geneva airport.
They weren’t just mailbox companies. Business certainly started from here. Knox saw neighbors in his office every day, Willis was a British-Swiss citizen and lived here. These are international cases of large-scale fraud, perpetrated in Switzerland. And yet, the response of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to fraud cases is short and sweet: “The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is not currently conducting any criminal proceedings in this context.”
The fact is that the Americans hunted Willis and Knox without the support of the Swiss authorities. There were no requests for legal assistance from the United States until the arrest.
19 thanks to foreign authorities, but not to Switzerland
“It is shameful that Switzerland is left out in such cases,” says Lucius Richard Blattner. The attorney represented 150 victims of the century con artist Dieter Behring, was a prosecutor in Zurich and has run a law firm specializing in white collar crimes for twenty years with many international cases. “When it comes to cross-border crime, cooperation between states is the most important thing. It’s really questionable if it just goes through the Swiss authorities,” says Blattner.
Attorney Lucius Richard Blattner says: “Switzerland has several advantages as a place for scammers.”
Switzerland left the prosecution to the Americans. And the US stock market regulator literally demonstrated Switzerland in a press release. He thanks 19 foreign authorities for their help in the investigation against Knox. Not a single Swiss authority can be found on the list. Neither the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, nor the Finma supervisory authority. The “Mauritius Financial Services Commission”, the “Malta Financial Services Authority” or the “Superintendency of the Panama Securities Market” do this. The same happened with the Willis indictment.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office says upon request that it is not responsible. Stock market offenses in relation to stocks that are not traded in Switzerland would not be the responsibility of federal prosecutors. A statement that lawyer Blattner does not accept: “It depends on the place where the criminal acts were committed. If you work from Switzerland and there are several cantons involved, it is very possible that there is a point of contact for criminal prosecution by the federal prosecutor. “He sees another reason for the inaction of federal prosecutors:
“The case does not affect the Swiss and it did not appear to be media oriented. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is happy to be active where it believes it will gain merits. “
Swiss authorities had known about Knox’s corrupt business since 2015. At that time, the Stuttgart prosecutor sent a request for legal assistance to Bern. However, the request was only carried out two years later. According to US case files, Knox carried out nearly all of its 100+ scams after 2015. Apparently unflappable.
Roger Knox’s AMG-Mercedes was still in Finhaut VS a year and a half after his arrest.
Switzerland was also left out when the fraudsters were arrested. The US authorities were gathering evidence in the background and making a secret accusation. A typical approach. The prosecutor then sits in his office and waits like a cat in front of the mousetrap.
“Fraud is no fun if you don’t spend the money”
As soon as the targeted person enters the US sphere of influence, the authorities attack. The prosecution opens, the handcuffs click, the designer clothes are changed into an orange jumpsuit. Shortly after, the prosecutor knocked down a mountain to the accused
Show over the head. Most of the time, scammers settle quickly.
Knox was arrested at Boston Airport in October 2018. Willis in the UK in January 2020. He was extradited to the United States a few weeks ago. Both Brits had a truly global business. According to data from the Panama Papers, Willis’s company is surrounded by a network of 14 mailbox companies on the mini-Caribbean island of British Anguilla and the Pacific state of Samoa. Knox had accounts not only at the St. Galler Kantonalbank, but also in Dubai and Mauritius. He bought a luxury apartment in Chamonix, France, at the foot of Montblanc. He founded his business near the border in Finhaut VS.
Therefore, they could have settled anywhere and yet they chose Switzerland for their business. Why? “Switzerland has several advantages as a place for scammers,” says lawyer Blattner. “For example, we have the reputation of being a well-organized constitutional state.” Knox and Willis had to convince the compliance departments of international stockbrokers that their highly shady millionaire deals were legitimate. Blattner says:
“If the money is coming from the British Virgin Islands, the alarm bells will sound much earlier than if the sender is in respectable Switzerland.”
New companies are also quickly created in Switzerland. In a matter of days, not weeks, like abroad. Blattner: “In low-tax cantons like Zug there are so many letterbox companies that one more or less goes unnoticed.” Also, Switzerland has many land banks that don’t look as closely as their larger competitors when it comes to large amounts, says Blattner.
“There are also cantons that provide prosecutors with very little resources because they want to keep taxes low.”
Every scammer becomes ignorant at some point
Blattner has an idea of how Switzerland could become less attractive to scammers. “It would be useful if all companies active in the financial sector had to publish the names and addresses of the people who actually act online. Swiss trustees would also think twice whether they really want to act as front men for dubious people, as they could be contacted and prosecuted more quickly. “
Roger Knox wanted to avoid a trip to the United States, but was arrested there. (Source: FBI)
Knox and Willis looked to Switzerland as a safe haven. Still, they ventured into dangerous American and British waters. That was your downfall. Blattner knows the psyche of scammers well and says:
“Every fraudster thinks he’s so brilliant that at some point he gets sloppy.”
Often everything is banal: “You want to go to the horse race with an escort in New York. Fraud is no fun if you don’t spend the money. “
Due to the corona virus, which is widespread in American prisons, the two are awaiting their trials under house arrest. The court gave Willis a $ 1 million bond. He paid in style: with guarantees in Swiss houses and five diamond rings valued at $ 129,000.
* Name changed.
Swiss FBI informants convicted
The arrest of millionaire fraudster Roger Knox was the result of a sophisticated plan by the FBI of the US Federal Police. Two Zurich lawyers from a well-known tax firm, an American and a Swiss, played a decisive role as subsequent police informants.
They had previously served on commission as liaison officers for an American millionaire who, with Knox’s help, was misleading gullible Americans. In May 2018, the FBI searched the US attorney’s office in the United States. The officials later turned him and his Swiss colleagues into informants. The Swiss showed officials incriminating talks with Knox, the American went even further: under the direction of the FBI, he called the scammer with millions and got him to explain his illegal business model on tape. Also due to the betrayal of the two attorneys, Knox will spend the next decade behind bars.
The lawyers have recently received their sentences. The Swiss came out calmly. He received 30 months of probation. In the verdict, the judge said that the normal sentence for this crime was three years in prison: “He has done everything possible to amend it. Your steps are extraordinary. ”The US prosecutor has been jailed for 15 months despite helping him prosecute Knox.
