Crime in Switzerland

[6] Each class of crime references the relevant section of the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code, abbreviated as StGB in German), or Betäubungsmittelgesetz (abbr.

According to a 2021 survey about juvenile crimes, 6.4 percent of respondents aged 14 and 15 admitted participating in a group fight.

[8] Suspected cases of embezzlement, tax fraud, money laundering and sexual harassment have been reported in 35 percent of companies in Switzerland.

[9] Swiss banks have served as safe havens for the wealth of dictators, despots, mobsters, arms dealers, corrupt officials, and tax cheats of all kinds.

[15] Under Swiss laws, a company can be held criminally liable for inadequate organisation or failing to take all reasonable measures to prevent a crime from happening.

[19] Thus, loopholes exist through the use of shell companies, trust funds, and proxy directors signing the paperwork without owning the assets.

[20] Under current rules, banking institutions and cantonal authorities can only report what's in their registers – looking into the origins of assets or connections between individuals is not permitted (2022).

[15][23] A provision in Swiss law allows its companies' overseas subsidiaries (e.g. in Dubai, Cyprus or Hong Kong) to trade commodities for sanctioned countries (like Russia for example) as long as they are "legally independent".

[27] According to SFAO, the real estate sector in Switzerland is still an attractive place to introduce funds of illegal origin into the legal financial circuit.

[30] As of 2023, financial intermediaries are required to verify the identity of customers, record which services have been provided to them, and clarify their background and purpose.

The new rules also oblige banks to inform the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MLROS) of criminal funds, which they did not always disclose.

[31] Swiss NGO Public Eye has recommended the creation of a supervisory authority for the commodities sector to improve the tracking of the actual owners of trading firms and ensure that commodities don't originate in conflict zones or countries subject to international sanctions.

[32] As of 2023, Swiss companies using blockchain technology for the tracing of commodities such as gold or diamonds (from mining to commercialization) are slowly emerging.

[33] In addition, FATF and Transparency International are demanding that lawyers, financial advisors plus real estate and art transactions be subject to the same exacting anti-money laundering measures as banks.

[43] Swiss authorities, including CHUV, estimate that dealers and traffickers make profits of $28.1-29.1 million a year in Vaud alone.

[50][51] In 2022, a near all-time record Brazilian shipment of 500 kg of cocaine was intercepted by the Swiss authorities at a Nespresso factory in Fribourg.

[53] According to a 2023 study, between ten and fifteen percent of the people who drive a vehicle in Switzerland are under the influence of dangerous substances (including cocaine).

[62] In 2023, the Swiss government was the target of a major cyber-attack which purportedly stole very sensitive data that could endanger its national security and which was later available for sale on the dark web.

[67] In 2018 alone, the FBI reported 9,000 cases of child pornography and pedo-criminality originating in Switzerland, to the Swiss authorities (FedPol).

[70] [71] But a study conducted by the University of Zurich in 2023 revealed that 1,000 cases of sexual abuse in the Swiss Catholic Church have occurred since 1950 referencing 510 offenders and 921 victims.

[73] In Switzerland public discrimination or invoking to rancor against persons or a group of people because of their race, ethnicity, is penalized with a term of imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine.

In 1934, the authorities of the Canton of Basel-Stadt criminalized anti-Jewish hate speech, e.g., the accusation of ritual murders, mostly in reaction against a pro-Nazi antisemitic group and newspaper, the Volksbund.

[82] Council of Europe's Group of State Against Corruption (GRECO) in its evaluation report noted that specificities of Switzerland's institutions which enjoy considerable public confidence.

The ranking attempts to measure how much assistance the country's legal systems provide to money laundering, and to protecting corruptly obtained wealth.

In 1999, the Federal Department of Justice and Police ordered a study regarding delinquency and nationality (Arbeitsgruppe "Ausländerkriminalität"), which in its final report (2001) found that a conviction rate under criminal law about 12 times higher among asylum seekers (four percent), while the conviction rate among other resident foreigners was about twice as high (0.6%) compared to Swiss citizens (0.3%).

The Federal Statistics Office published the study with the caveat that the sizes of the groups under comparison vary considerably.

This law, proposed by the Swiss People's Party, called for the automatic expulsion of non-Swiss offenders convicted of a number of crimes, including murder, breaking and entry and even welfare fraud.

[95] Swiss banks have served as safe havens for the wealth of dictators, despots, mobsters, arms dealers, corrupt officials, and tax cheats of all kinds.

[102] In May 2023, OFAC imposed new sanctions on Swiss-based DuLac Capital Ltd and its Swiss director for Russia (Anselm Oskar Schmucki) allegedly for close ties to the Russian mafia and for facilitating financial transactions on their behalf via a global network of shell companies.

[34] According to the director of FedPol in 2023, Switzerland is attractive to criminal networks in many areas as a hiding place, for drugs, arms, human trafficking, burglaries and ATM robberies.