The case

Yesterday, a hearing in a courtroom revealed insight into the life of a greengrocer-cum-mafia associate who had helped the organised crime by laundering their money.

Source: ​Judgement DH 240013 of 9 April 2024. NZZ E-Paper of 10 April 2024

The commentary

The trail of the dirty money leads straight to Zurich’s Langstrasse, where BY had been selling his vegetables, fruits, food and all sorts of things required for daily life in his inconspicuous little supermarket. Yet, behind this façade BY had been conducting a second line of business for years by laundering money for the organised crime, whose members knew the 60-year-old’s address only too well. BY had been transferring his clients’ sums amounting to approximately CHF 10.5 million to the desired criminals pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Shops and business like the one of BY are an ideal playground for criminal organizations as they  convey the impression of being serious and reputable as they handle larger sums of money on a legal basis, so it is hard to recognize if larger sums of money of illegal provenance are being shifted. This is what makes it easy for mafia organizations to conduct their business in a covert manner, for dirty money is only useful to the organized crime if it can be introduced surreptitiously into the legal business activities. Drug cartels, the mafia and other criminal organizations have been going to enormous lengths to launder their criminal proceeds.

The judgement proposed by the prosecutor’s office was approved, and the 60-year-old shop owner was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, six months of which he must serve. He will not have to spend the remaining thirty months in prison, provided he will not commit any further offences. BY was ordered to pay a compensation claim of CHF 200,000 to the state, and he will also have to pay for the procedural costs amonting to around CHF 123,000.