Bernese shipowner is fighting a prison sentence in the Supreme Court
Shipowner Hans-Jürg Grunder from the canton of Bern has been resisting his five-year prison sentence since Monday before the Bern High Court.
The venue of the Bern High Court above Bern main station.
Photo: Keystone/Peter Klaunzer
A former shipowner of the Swiss high-seas fleet is fighting against his five-year prison sentence, which the Bern Economic Criminal Court pronounced in 2020. The appeal process began on Monday before the Bernese Supreme Court
In July 2020, shipowner Hans-Jürg Grunder from the canton of Bern was convicted by the cantonal commercial criminal court of fraud, multiple qualified unfair business dealings and fraud. This is a criminal offense in the Federal Act on National Economic Supply.
In addition to imprisonment, the court also sentenced the 68-year-old to pay the canton of Bern a so-called compensation claim of CHF 1.2 million. It also ordered Grunder to pay millions in damages to several private prosecutors.
Several parties involved in the proceedings appealed against the first-instance verdict, including the convict himself, but also the public prosecutor’s office and the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (FONES) on behalf of the Confederation.
The court plans to announce the verdict on June 3rd. At the first instance trial, a Bern prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of 7.5 years, and the shipowner’s defense attorneys demanded an acquittal of all charges.
It’s about millions
Until 2017, the Bernese shipowner was sailing the seven seas with a dozen ships. In 2015, the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (BWL) determined that the shipping company and the individual ship operating companies were experiencing financial difficulties, which led to attempts at restructuring.
These failed after about a year and the ships had to be sold.
Because the banks withdrew the guarantees with which the federal government had secured the ships, the Confederation suffered losses of around CHF 200 million, according to the financial delegation of the Federal Councils (FinDel) in 2018. This through the sale of a total of 15 ships.
The court of first instance ruled in 2020 that Grunder was not responsible for such a large amount of damage. Within his company network, however, Grunder damaged several Swiss companies in favor of foreign subsidiaries. He did this by moving funds back and forth and granting so-called intercompany loans.
The presiding judge said in the summer of 2020 that the amount of the offense for this unfaithful business management was around 30 million francs. She went on to say that Grunder had submitted 56 false annual accounts from the ship operating companies to the federal government.
When he applied for a federal guarantee for a new ship, he also gave the BWL a higher purchase price than agreed with the Chinese seller. He got a guarantee that was 2.7 million francs higher and cheated the subsequent Swiss buyer of the ship by a little over 3 million francs
The presiding judge of the Supreme Court emphasized on Monday that the presumption of innocence still applies to founders. She and two other chief justices questioned Grunder extensively on Monday about the controversial business.
Problematic federal guarantees
Federal guarantees in favor of high-sea shipping were introduced in 1959 to enable Swiss shipowners to finance ships on very favorable terms. First it was about the national economic supply, later also about strengthening Switzerland as a service and industrial location.
In 2019, the finance delegation of the federal parliament established that issuing joint and several guarantees was equivalent to issuing a blank cheque. The federal government is thus handing over tax options and for the banks it is an extremely low-risk business. The finance delegation therefore recommended that this instrument no longer be used.
A year ago, the Swiss Federal Audit Office came to the conclusion that cooperation between the federal agencies involved in ocean shipping had improved, but that there were still shortcomings in supervision. So far, the federal government has suffered losses of around 350 million francs.
As Thomas Baumeler from the General Secretariat of the Federal Department of Economics, Education and Research (EAER) said on request on the sidelines of the process, fifteen ships equipped with federal guarantees are currently still operating on the world’s seas. These guarantees are no longer a problem for the federal government because the economic situation has changed.
Unlike at the time when Reeder Grunder got into difficulties, ship freight is currently in high demand and high freight yields are being achieved. The last guarantees expire in 2032.
Posted today at 10:54 am
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