How does a Lorenz Erni defend a Pierin Vincenz?

How Lorenz Erni defends the man who has been exposed to media barrage for years.

Lorenz Erni (right) demands full acquittal on all counts for his client Pierin Vincenz (left).

Michael Buholzer / Keystone

Does a star defenseman sleep the night before one of the most important pleadings of his career? Or does he go through his presentation before the court section by section in the quiet of the night and perhaps make final changes? How exactly Lorenz Erni prepared in the last few hours before his big performance is unknown. What is certain is that in the few minutes before the start, he was talking quietly to another defense lawyer, exchanging a friendly word with his client Pierin Vincenz, while leaning casually against a table. At 8:15 a.m. sharp, Judge Sebastian Aeppli opened the hearing, wearing a green face mask for the first time. This goes well with the large windows in the White Hall of the Volkshaus Zurich, in which the court once again moved on for the fourth day.

How does a Lorenz Erni defend a Pierin Vincenz? The media has been asking this question for a long time. How do you defend a man who has been exposed to media prejudice for six years, a form that has never existed in Swiss economic history before? Switzerland has never treated its fallen heroes well. The moral verdict on Pierin Vincenz was made long ago – before the court process had even begun, let alone the judges having pronounced a verdict on the legal allegations.

In this extraordinary situation, Erni first applied for full acquittal on all counts for his client plus satisfaction. Afterwards, with quotes from others, he referred to the successes in terms of growth, profit and market leadership that Raiffeisen had achieved with its boss at the time.

Unusually emotional

From then on there was a fire in the roof. It is said that Erni normally reads his pleadings very factually. He recites them monotonously, they are not rhetorical fireworks. But on that day, Erni was outraged: about the many leaks to the media, about articles that infringed on personality and were incorrect in terms of content, and about the fact that the process began with a violation of banking secrecy, keyword Bank Julius Baer. And again and again about the prosecution, which “deliberately hides the essential facts” and “has driven the proceedings with rarely seen zeal”, because “where would you go if you let Mr. Vincenz go”.

The day before, Erni had said to this newspaper that his presentation would be much easier to understand than that of the public prosecutor’s office. His plea was then clearly structured and dealt with all the allegations of the prosecution one after the other in understandable language. He also looked at the individual emails and chats that the prosecution had cited as evidence the day before.

An example of how Erni tried to dismantle evidence presented by the prosecution: The public prosecutor’s office first investigated whether Pierin Vincenz and Beat Stocker had caused damage by working towards an excessively high purchase price for the companies that Aduno and Raiffeisen took over – to benefit from it yourself. This is the case with the card terminal company Commtrain. Erni stated: «So even the magistrate said that the exact basis of Corporate transactions are now to be checked by the prosecution and, if necessary, by expert opinions. Astonishment and disappointment were written all over the public prosecutor’s face when Conrad Auerbach, CFO of Aduno, stated in the agreement that the acquisition of Commtrain made sense, that they knew the figures and that the evaluation process was also his responsibility.”

Another example: The prosecution accuses Pierin Vincenz and Beat Stocker of having agreed in the case of Investnet to secretly take a stake at the expense of Raiffeisen. In June 2015, Stocker transferred Vincenz’s profit share of CHF 2.9 million. Erni presented the course of a chat between the two. It shows that they had been in intensive discussions about the amount of a loan some time before the transaction. According to Erni, Vincenz initially asked for a loan of 5 million francs, Stocker wanted to give less. The CHF 2.9 million negotiated at the end was actually a loan and not the long-agreed share of profits from a shadow participation, said Erni.

Another explanation

Erni presented a whole series of cases below. Everywhere he came to completely different explanations than the prosecution due to his embedding of the events – this mind you based on the same conversations in the files. This approach showed the clever tactics of the defense. In three transactions, namely Investnet, GCL and the Euro deposit, Erni came to the conclusion that there was no evidence that Pierin Vincenz was involved in the period relevant to the indictment.

And only at the very end did the old fox go into the expenses – and there, too, denied all the allegations of the prosecution. In individual cases, Erni’s statements were not convincing; with the best will in the world, some of the expenses should not be justified commercially. But his speech showed that many of those responsible at Raiffeisen looked the other way and that a “Vincenz system” was probably only possible because of the corresponding “Raiffeisen system”.

The prosecution must be able to prove all allegations. In the end, the court decides which version it believes more.

After Erni’s plea, Andreas Blattmann took the stage for Beat Stocker: First at breakneck speed, then after a short break more moderately so that the media representatives followed suit, he delved into the legal depths of the complex case in detail. At 5:35 p.m. his speech was adjourned, the second part will follow on February 9th. From 8.15 am the process will continue with the questioning of Investnet founder Andreas Etter. He couldn’t take part this week because of Corona. After the plea for the accused communications consultant, Blattmann will continue to plead for Stocker.

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