Zurich High Court discontinues cum-ex proceedings against Eckart Seith
Keystone-SDA
A trial against a German lawyer, accused of breaching Swiss banking secrecy during his investigation of controversial cum-ex transactions, has collapsed.
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The court came to the conclusion that a former Zurich public prosecutor involved in bringing the case was biased.
“The public prosecutor did not show the necessary impartiality,” said the chief judge in his reasoning. Seith and the two co-defendants had been denied important rights of participation, such as the right to inspect files.
Returning the cum-ex trial to the Zurich public prosecutor’s office for revision was not appropriate. After so many years, the evidence could no longer be properly re-examined anyway. “The proceedings will therefore be discontinued.”
The German lawyer Eckart Seith was accused of economic espionage and violations of banking law because he allegedly obtained internal documents from the Swiss bank J. Safra Sarasin and passed them on to German investigators.
Translated from German by DeepL/mga
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