A man from the canton of Bern has been deceiving the authorities for 20 years. (archive image)
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A man in the canton of Bern has lived in luxury for over 20 years. He uses a fraudulent scam to steal millions of dollars. He has 16.5 million francs in debt to the canton, city and federal government.
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- A Bernese entrepreneur paid no taxes for over 20 years while earning millions.
- He posed as a penniless pensioner in order to receive social welfare.
- During a house search in 2022, valuable items and over one million francs were discovered in bank accounts.
- The man and his ex-wife are on trial for seizure fraud and forgery.
A Bernese entrepreneur didn’t pay any taxes for 20 years, even though he earned millions with his temporary office. He posed as a penniless pensioner and received supplementary benefits and later social assistance after retiring at the age of 63.
It was not until the summer of 2022 that the canton of Bern filed a report that led to a house search. The authorities discovered luxury items in the apartment shared by the man and his ex-wife.
Luxury goods found during house search
For example: 20 luxury watches from brands Audemars Piguet, Chopard, Hublot and Omega. 19 furs and fur coats, 214 handbags, travel bags and wallets from luxury brands such as Chanel, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Prada, 63 boxes of wine and 69 individual wine and champagne bottles, some with well-known names such as Château Mouton Rothschild, 21 Goldvreneli and others
The authorities also found what they were looking for in the garage. They confiscated three cars – a VW Golf Highline, a Porsche 911 Turbo and a Porsche Cayenne Turbo – worth a total of around 400,000 francs. In addition, five of the man’s bank accounts with a total balance of over one million francs were blocked, as were three of the ex-wife’s accounts that contained over 400,000 francs.
16.5 million francs in debt to the canton, city and federal government
The entrepreneur is now standing before the Bernese commercial criminal court together with his ex-wife. Both are charged with multiple counts of garnishment fraud and fraud. According to the indictment, the man owes the federal government, the canton and the city of Bern a total of 16.5 million francs. He is also charged with forgery of documents because he forged expired parking permits for disabled people and used them for himself.
The now 76-year-old appears in the courtroom as a thin man with striking facial features, his thin hair carefully combed back. He began his career as a plumber before entering the recruitment business in 1985.
He has not paid any taxes since 1999, which he justified with a supposedly unfair tax assessment. The man did not have a convincing answer to the court’s questions about why he had not filed a legal objection.
The investigation also showed that he had moved over three million francs to Liechtenstein in 2000 and founded a foundation called Abendstimm, presumably to hide his assets.
The authorities were already on the trail of the fraudster in 2006
Divorcing his wife also appears to have been part of his tax avoidance plan. Although the two lived together again after a few years, valuables such as the luxury cars were transferred to the ex-wife, who had no tax debts.
The man had already been convicted of seizure fraud in 2006, but this did not stop his further actions. In 2011 he applied for supplementary benefits and from 2020 he also received social assistance.
His attempt to drastically reduce his tax debts through a “deal of the century” ultimately brought him down. He offered the tax administration to buy off his debts of 8.7 million francs for just 25,000 francs.
After the city of Bern vetoed the deal, investigations began and uncovered numerous inconsistencies. It turned out that the man had purchased a total of 130 gold bars worth 1.6 million francs in 2020, which have not yet been found.
The verdict in the case of the man and his ex-wife is expected on Thursday.
