Founder of Swiss Space Systems Sentenced to Prison
The Economic Criminal Court of the Canton of Fribourg has sentenced Pascal Jaussi to five and a half years' imprisonment for fraud and forgery of documents.
Founder of Swiss Space Systems Sentenced to Prison
The Economic Criminal Court of the Canton of Fribourg handed down a severe judgment against Pascal Jaussi on Monday afternoon. The 49-year-old founder of space start-up Swiss Space Systems (S3) must serve five and a half years in prison. The judges found him guilty on several counts, including fraud, attempted fraud, embezzlement and forgery of documents.
Court president Alain Gautschi described the sentence as substantial. He accused the convicted man of putting his passion above everything else – with no regard for the interests of other people. Jaussi had displayed a criminal mindset and maintained his innocence to the end.
The engineer left the courtroom with a grim expression, accompanied by his wife. The courtroom was full to capacity, with numerous journalists following the verdict.
The Jaussi case has been dragging on for almost a decade. The investigation is as complicated as it is convoluted and now fills 75 federal folders. Everything began in March 2013, when the entrepreneur – then celebrated as the "Swiss Elon Musk" – presented his company in Payerne. S3 wanted to make access to space possible for everyone through reusable mini-satellites.
The defence had pleaded for acquittal for eleven hours. The presiding judge, however, remained comparatively brief during the verdict announcement. "You thought too quickly and too ambitiously," was his terse summary directed at Jaussi.
Source: Le Temps
Source: Le Temps