The appeal hearing for former Raiffeisen Group CEO Pierin Vincenz and Aduno founder Beat Stocker concluded in Zurich on Wednesday, with presiding judge Christian Prinz noting the process had concluded but warning that a verdict would take weeks to deliver.
Vincenz, who served as Raiffeisen CEO from 2008 to 2015, concluded his closing statement in under two minutes, requesting an acquittal. He acknowledged management missteps but maintained that his actions were aligned with the interests of Raiffeisen and Aduno, denying any intent to cause financial harm. Stocker, Aduno’s founder, admitted to governance failures, stating he had made "1,000 mistakes" and should have disclosed his shadow stakes, which he argued created suspicion without constituting criminal intent.
The prosecution, however, characterized the case as a pattern of personal enrichment through undisclosed transactions. Chief prosecutor Marc Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel dismissed defense arguments as "bold and plainly false," particularly regarding a CHF 2.9 million loan from Stocker to Vincenz. The prosecution alleged the loan was a fabricated arrangement to conceal payments from corporate deals, while the defense framed it as financing for a Ticino villa. Raiffeisen’s legal team supported the villa explanation, citing wiretapped phone calls and correspondence from Investnet co-founder Peter Wüst.
The core dispute centers on whether the lack of disclosure and subsequent profits alone constitute fraud or breach of fiduciary duty, or whether demonstrable financial harm must also be proven. The prosecution invoked the principle of retrocession to argue for wrongdoing, while the defense countered that the concept was being misapplied. This legal clash was underscored in the closing arguments for Stéphane Barbier-Mueller, whose lawyer Nathan Landshut argued that mere negligence—such as "should have known"—was insufficient to establish criminal complicity.
Raiffeisen and Viseca, Aduno’s successor, continue to pursue multi-million-franc claims, while defendants and their legal teams seek the release of frozen assets, including pension fund savings and property proceeds. Vincenz’s lawyer, Lorenz Erni, argued that the acquisition of Commtrain by Aduno provided equivalent value, asserting that "no harm means no fraud." Stocker’s defense, led by Andreas Blattmann, similarly distinguished between governance failures and criminal liability, emphasizing the absence of intent to enrich unlawfully.
Legal experts anticipate the Zurich appeals court will significantly reduce the sentences handed down in the first instance—3 years and 9 months for Vincenz and 4 years for Stocker—pending the court’s determination on the boundary between unethical business conduct and criminal activity.
