Riddes fire Sunday night, village centre lumberyard destroyed, no injuries
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A lumberyard in the centre of the small town of Riddes, between Martigny and Sion in canton Valais, went up in flames around 22:00 Sunday night 20 May, causing heavy damage but no injuries.
Police say an investigation has been opened, with no clear cause for the fire at the moment.
The lumberyard was destroyed and wood that was stored nearby was calcified.
Police closed the A9 autoroute until shortly after midnight because of heavy smoke and high winds.
Twelve homes near the fire were evacuated and the commune put up close to 100 people for the night.
Villagers are being told to keep their windows closed Monday because of smoke in the air.
100 neighbours evacuated from Riddes fire as a precaution, with high winds blowing
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Many of the children who were injured in the bus crash 13 March in Sierre are not yet ready to be interviewed by the police, their parents have reportedly told Belgian and Swiss police investigators, according to Belgian media. A team of Swiss inspectors is in Belgium this week for interviews as part of the effort to determine what caused the crash.
Right-wing UDC strategist was not told ahead of search for breaking banking secrecy laws
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Zurich public prosecutor Andreas Brunner says “pertinent” material was found during a search of the home and office of Christoph Blocher, a UDC People’s Party leader. Blocher was not told in advance that his home and office would be searched on suspicion that he had broken banking secrecy laws, news agency ats reports.
Brunner does say, according to the agency and other Swiss media, that Blocher’s attorney was told Monday evening his client was under suspicion and would be called in for questioning.
When the attorney said that Blocher would use his parliamentary immunity, Brunner and the police, who were not convinced the immunity applies to the case, moved quickly to do the search Tuesday.
Blocher is suspected of breaking Swiss banking secrecy laws in December when he was the recipient of information about the private bank account of Philipp Hildebrand, then chairman of the Swiss central bank, the SNB. He then told Micheline Calmy-Rey, who was the Swiss president in 2011, that Hildebrand may have acted illegally in buying and selling currency. Hildebrand subsequently resigned to allow an investigation to go ahead; his name was cleared but in February the SNB changed its rules for members of the board’s own financial transactions, to improve transparency.
Blocher, strategist for right-wing People’s Party, ironically under suspicion for breaking bank secrecy laws
Blocher, during a TV appearance in 2010
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The search Tuesday 20 March by Zurich police of both the home and the office of Christophe Blocher startled the Swiss political world, in part because Blocher has been a staunch supporter of Swiss bank secrecy.
The searches were ordered by Zurich’s public prosecutor, after an official inquiry was opened, making it official that Blocher is under suspicion for breaking bank secrecy laws at the end of 2011.
He was part of a chain of at three people who saw private bank information for an account belonging to the Swiss National Bank (SNB) chairman and it was Blocher who contacted the Swiss president to suggest that the head of the Swiss central bank may have illegally profited from a personal currency transaction.
Blocher was on the receiving end of copies of private bank account information for Philipp Hildebrand, then head of the Swiss National Bank, in December. The two had clashed, and Blocher made no secret of his desire to see Hildebrand go.
An employee at the bank where Hildebrand and his wife had a personal account became suspicious about the sale of a large amount of currency. He took the information to a lawyer and politician, who contacted Blocher. The information was shared with then-President Micheline Calmy-Rey and it was leaked to the press.
The end result was that Hildebrand resigned in early January, the central bank hired an outside firm to investigate and Hildebrand was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing, but the incident resulted in the SNB tightening its rules for board members’ own transactions, for greater transparency.
Timing, of the essence, for opening the investigation and for the search
La Liberté in Fribourg quotes a former police officer and vice’president of the UDC, Yves Perrin, as saying the searches were inevitable. “I’m surprised, though, that they weren’t carried out earalier because, with the passage of time, proof becomes harder to find. If I were in possession of compromising documents or materials, I would have lit a fire in the fireplace long ago.” That said, he adds, not finding proof is not proof of innocence, either.
Timing in the affair has been and remains a critical issue, reports the Tribune de Geneve: Blocher’s lawyer is reported as saying his client is invoking parliamentary immunity, which means that the materials seized, reportedly including Blocher’s cell phone and computer, are under lock and key while a parliamentary commission decides if the charges against him are linked to his role in parliament.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Comco, Switzerland’s competition commission, has opened an investigation into more than 10 international banks and companies and the country’s two largest, UBS and Credit Suisse, for possible “collusion between derivative traders [that] might have influenced the reference rates Libor and Tibor. Furthermore, market conditions regarding derivative products based on these reference rates might have been manipulated, too.”
The investigation follows what Comco calls an application to its leniancy programme, or self-denunciation, without providing details of who provided the information. The investigation could take several months. The banks targeted by the investigation include: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, HSBC Holdings plc, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Rabobank Groep N.V., Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, Société Générale SA and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
Libor, the London interbank lending rate and Tibor, in Japan, are rates set daily based on bank data, which serve as underlying lending rates. The Swiss National Bank defines Libor as:
“The Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) refers to the interest rate for unsecured money market loans to prime banks. Each bank business day, specific banks report to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) the interest rate at which they would be able borrow unsecured funds of a reasonable market size on the London interbank market shortly prior to 11 a.m. The relevant top and bottom-quartile interest rates are disregarded when fixing the Libor. An average is calculated on the basis of the remaining interest rates, and the figure obtained in this manner is fixed and published as the Libor for the day in question. Libor rates are fixed in different currencies and with varying maturities.”
The investigation comes three weeks after European Union anti-trust boss Joaquin Almina said the EU is stepping up its efforts to ensure that derivatives markets remain free and competitive. Antoine Colombani, spokesperson for the European Commission is cited by Bloomberg as stating in January that “Last October we carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of a number of undertakings active in the sector of euro interest rate derivatives based on Euribor benchmark rates,” but that it had not opened a formal investigation.
“Regulators in the US, UK and European Union have been examining how Libor is set, while Japan’s securities watchdog has probed Tibor,” according to Bloomberg.
Comco’s statement notes:
“The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate (Tibor) are reference rates which are aimed at reflecting the interest rate level in the interbank deposit market. The British Bankers’ Association (for Libor) and the Japanese Bankers’ Association (for Tibor) calculate these reference rates on a daily basis, for a range of currencies, based on submissions by respective panel banks. Derivative traders working for a number of financial institutions might have manipulated these submissions by coordinating their behaviour, thereby influencing these reference rates in their favour. Moreover, derivative traders might have colluded to manipulate the difference between the ask price and the bid price (spread) of derivatives based on these reference rates to the detriment of their clients.”
Comco says that assessing ‘the effects of the alleged practises on Swiss clients and companies is one of the aims of the investigation”.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of deaths in Syria as a result of the crackdown on protests has reached 3,500, the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva says. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a press briefing that 60 deaths have been recorded since the Syrian government reportedly said at the start of November
The OHCHR office headed by Navi Pillay has called on Syria a number of times to end the brutality and allow an independent commission to investigate the situation in the country.
Tuesday Shamdasani said
“Since Syria signed the peace plan sponsored by the League of Arab States last week, more than 60 people are reported to have been killed by military and security forces, including at least 19 on the Sunday that marked Eid al-Adha.
“While the Syrian government announced the release of 553 detainees on Saturday on the occasion of Eid, tens of thousands remain in detention and dozens continue to be arbitrarily arrested everyday. Syrian troops continue to use tanks and heavy weaponry to mount attacks on residential areas in the city of Homs. The situation in the neighbourhood of Baba Amr has been particularly appalling. According to information the UN human rights office has received, the neighbourhood has remained under siege for seven days, with residents deprived of food, water and medical supplies.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, 2 November lost his high court appeal to avoid extradition to Sweden. His lawyers say they will decide in the next 14 days whether or not to appeal to Britain’s supreme court. Assange is wanted by Sweden for questioning over charges of sexual assault filed by two women in relation to an August 2010 visit by Assange to Stockholm.
ABC News in Australia reports that “his mother Christine told the Australian Associated Press news agency on Wednesday that her son was now ‘even closer to a US extradition or rendition. If [the Australian people] don’t stand up for Julian, he will go to the US and he will be tortured,’” she said.
Links to other sites: ABC News, Australia, Guardian, UK, Radio Sweden
Controversial documentary to air on 16 September
CANADA – New allegations by Tom Juby an investigator who looked into the fatal crash of Swissair Flight 111 in the coast of Canada, argue that the fire in the doomed plane could have been caused by an incendiary device, and that a “homicide investigation should have taken place.”
The controversial allegations are made on the CBC program, The Fifth Estate which airs later tonight.
According to CBC News, magnesium and other elements found on some of the wires were first attributed to “long exposure to seawater” by Dr. Jim Brown who later changed his findings.
According to The Fifth Estate, a year into the investigation Dr. Brown, using “auger electron spectroscopy,” discovered “suspicious levels of magnesium — 10 times the anticipated amount — as well as other elements associated with arson in melted wiring from the section of the plane that suffered the greatest fire damage.”
Previously, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada concluded that the accident was “caused by a fire in the cockpit, likely sparked by an electrical fault,” and has refused to discuss any possible criminal acts.
On 2 September 1998, Swissair Flight 111 was on a flight from New York City to Geneva when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport, at the entrance to St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia.
The plane was carrying 215 passengers and 14 crew members, none survived.
A Saudi prince, a relative of the former shah of Iran, high profile UN officials and a half a billion dollars of diamonds and gems were on board.
World Radio Switzerland reported on 15 September that the Swiss public TV, SRG SSR, refused to broadcast the film “because it considers [it] mere speculation.”
The documentary however, can be viewed worldwide directly online on the CBC website.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Russian authorities look set to continue their investigation into the affairs of Sergei Magnitsky, who was beaten to death in prison in November 2009, after the Heritage Capital lawyer spent 11 months in prison, in pre-trial detention. He was arrested on tax evasion charges, reports the Moscow Times, after he “accused several tax and police officials of embezzling $230 million of state money through tax refunds. A case against him was opened shortly thereafter, which was handled by the same officers he accused of corruption.”
A high court ruled in July that the death of an accused person does not mean the case is closed, if his or her family requests that it remain open. Supporters of Magnitsky are divided over whether the case could clear his name or serve public officials who want to justify their case against him.
Switzerland opened an investigation into possible fraud linked to the case in April 2011. Hermitage Capital, based in London, was once the largest foreign investor in Russia; it was founded in 1996 by William Browder and Edmond Safra and specializes in investing in emerging markets. The company has gained a reputation for battling Russian corruption, after bringing to light several cases.
Evolene ski slope where girl slid to her death
Sion, Valais (GenevaLunch) – A criminal investigation is pursuing two people following initial official inquiries into the death of a 12-year-old girl in Evolène, canton Valais, in February.
The girl died after sliding downhill and crashing into a pylon when she slipped from a towbar at the top of a ski slope.
Cantonal justice officials emphasize that the two are presumed to be innocent unless facts show otherwise, but they have began investigating the manager of the company that operates the resort’s ski lifts, Télé-Evolène SA, as well as the piste and safety manager.
Background stories, GenevaLunch 12 February and 10 February
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A man in his mid-20s was found dead at Evam, the Nyon Welcome Centre for Migrants Tuesday morning 8 March. Canton Vaud police and a medical examiner were called. Police say that foul play is not suspected, but an investigation into the man’s death has been opened. Police say they do not, for now, know his nationality or country of origin.
He was found about 11:30, lifeless, in his bed, by his roommate. The centre’s staff were immediately alerted but could do nothing more than confirm his death. The body was taken to the Legal Medicine Centre for French-speaking Switzerland, in Lausanne, for an autopsy.
Credit Suisse, Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Credit Suisse has confirmed to AP that it is cooperating with German authorities, who searched 13 of its offices in Dusseldorf, Zurich and Munich Wednesday morning. The searches are part of an ongoing investigation into whether or not bank employees helped German citizens evade taxes.
The investigation into 1,100 cases began as the result of data stolen from the bank, on a CD that the German government bought. Credit Suisse acknowledged earlier in 2010 that it appeared some of its clients were being investigated, but given that investigations are underway, it is not providing further comments. In March the bank cut staff travel from Switzerland to Germany because of the investigation.
Global warming: UK report encourages scientists to be more open (photo ©Peter Brodbeck)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) - Geneva-based IPCC (Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change) has received its second bit of good news this week about investigations into how its 2007 benchmark report on climate change reached its conclusions.
A six-month investigation in Britain (report, PDF) into a scandal involving scientists who contributed to the IPCC report has dismissed allegations of concealing and distorting information. At the same time, the East Anglia independent review group, led by Muir Russell, has come down hard on the scientists for operating in a culture of secrecy.
Earlier this week a Dutch government inquiry backed the core conclusions of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report on climate change. The report was undertaken in the wake of doubts cast on the work of the IPCC.
The UK scandal broke in November 2009 when a hacker obtained copies of 1,000 e-mail correspondence among scientists at the British university and published them on several web sites.
European Union considers the option of accompanying aid ships
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has refused calls from the international community for an outside investigation into an Israeli raid last week of a flotilla of aid ships heading for Gaza. France Sunday said that the European Union would be willing to check the cargo of aid ships if Israel agrees, in order to ease the blockade.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, France 24, Guardian, Today’s Zaman
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Divers trying to bring up a sunken boat in Lake Zurich Sunday made a macabre discovery: 13 urns holding human ashes were at the bottom of the lake. Charges have been filed against an unknown person for disturbing the dead, while police investigate the source of the urns.
Links to TSR (Fre)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The finance commission of the Swiss Parliament’s lower house agreed Thursday 21 January to set up a special investigative commission to review decisions made by Swiss authorities concerning UBS. The new commission will review decisions made by the Swiss Federal Council, the Swiss National Bank and Finma, the financial system supervisory body, in three areas: the UBS bailout in the contect of the financial markets crisis, changes to supervisory regulations covering UBS and the decision by Finma for UBS to release client data to US tax authorities.
Update 12:20 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in Bern closed off a large area around the US Embassy in the city Wednesday morning 6 January but the area has been re-opened. A suspect object was found at the embassy and police investigated. Police and the embassy did not provide details, but embassy staff told GenevaLunch they were not evacuated.
Nyon, home to European football's Uefa
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Uefa, the European football governing body, is extending its investigation into match-fixing to seven additional matches played in July 2009 involving five football clubs in Albania, Hungary, Latvia and Slovenia. The announcement came at the close of a three-hour meeting in Nyon 25 November that Uefa had called with nine national football associations.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A late night accident on the lake road near Geneva, a young driver with too much alcohol in his system, the driver of the other car in serious condition: accidents of this sort happen often enough that they rarely make the front page of Swiss newspapers.
Add in a Lamborghini, other flashy cars, rich children of Russian commercial celebrities and a story with international headlines surfaces. Stir in local political squabbles plus what looks to some people like rich foreigners fleeing the country in the face of Swiss justice, and a continuing headliner of wealth, incompetence and scandal is born.
Geneva media, police, lawyers exchange barbs
An accident which took place 19 November in Genthod, between Geneva and Versoix, has not only made headlines, it is putting Geneva police, authorities and Swiss media in the hot seat. Wednesday 25 November Geneva’s public prosecutor, Daniel Zappelli, said he had received a police file on the case, nearly a week after the accident and the day after he complained that he had received nothing. He has now officially opened a criminal investigation.
The media say police and officials reacted too slowly but the lawyer for the accused, a Geneva police spokesperson who talked to GenevaLunch and officials have expressed dismay at local media for hyping an event without facts. Jacques Barrillon, who represents the 22-year-old driver of the Lamborghini, told Russian journalists that “The story is being inflated in every possible way, just because it features nice, expensive cars, millionaire parents and foreign passports.”
Biel/Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swatch Group, which owns the parts-making company ETA Manufacture Horlogère SA, has responded publicly with dismay to news of a new Comco investigation into the impact of its dominant position in the market.
