Money laundering

The Money laundering field of crime primarily concerns significant cases of transnational laundering in which the predicate offense—frequently fraud or corruption, for example—was committed abroad, and where the laundering of the proceeds of these offenses has already been carried out to a predominant extent abroad. This latter criterion establishes the jurisdiction of the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG).

Switzerland is one of the world's most important and successful financial centres. Thanks to its global reputation, high-quality services and political and monetary stability, the Swiss financial centre is often used for asset management and as a location for international assets; it is also an important hub for international financial transactions.

The cases handled by the OAG mainly originate from reports filed by the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS), to which financial intermediaries, notably banking institutions, submit reports of suspicious transactions. For several years, the OAG has observed that assets of criminal origin introduced into Switzerland have often already been laundered or “pre-laundered” through multiple transactions involving numerous foreign jurisdictions, with the purpose of obstructing the identification of their origin and subsequent confiscation.

The two components – a predicate offence abroad and ‘pre-laundering’ abroad – pose a considerable challenge when it comes to the duration of the investigations and the outcome of the case, both of which are heavily dependent on the mutual legal assistance granted by the countries involved. In particular the difficulty of obtaining proof of the predicate offence abroad can become an insurmountable obstacle, especially if the country concerned fails to provide the OAG with the mutual legal assistance requested, only does so in part, or fails to do so within a reasonable time. The situation is also difficult if no investigations are being carried out in the country concerned. However, it should be pointed out that the prosecution or conviction of the perpetrators in the country in which the predicate offence was committed is not a mandatory requirement. These specific characteristics, combined with the growing complexity of the circuits used by money launderers, also require considerable resources for the essential financial analysis.

This is especially the case when not only the money laundering is subject to criminal proceedings, but assets of criminal origin are also to be confiscated, in order to uphold the principle that “crime should not pay”.