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.
