Swiss-Ski vice-president Schmidhalter faces court: fraud allegations over 300,000 francs
Claude-Alain Schmidhalter, vice-president of Swiss-Ski and chief organiser of the 2027 ski world championships, must answer charges of fraud on 27 October.
Schmidhalter and accomplice allegedly deprived ex-partner of severance payment
Claude-Alain Schmidhalter, vice-president of Swiss-Ski and president of the organising committee for the 2027 alpine ski world championships, faces court on charges of fraud and breach of trust. According to nau.ch, the Valais public prosecutor's office has brought charges against him; the trial takes place on 27 October before the district court of Brig-Glis.
Schmidhalter and an accomplice are alleged to have deprived their former business partner of part of his severance payment. The two had jointly run an engineering company in Upper Valais. An agreement provided that the remaining owner would pay the departing partner a severance sum upon his retirement. Whilst this payment did take place, it was lower than contractually stipulated, the Valais justice authorities confirmed when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency.
To avoid full payment, Schmidhalter and his co-accused are alleged to have artificially reduced the company's profits by transferring them to another company. According to the charge sheet, the retired business partner is said to have suffered damages of over 300,000 francs as a result.
The Valais public prosecutor's office is seeking a suspended prison sentence of 23 months for Schmidhalter, as well as a fine of 10,000 francs. In addition, he is to pay the injured party compensation of 55,000 francs.
Source: Google News CH — Crime (de)