When it comes to phone scams, the police almost always only catch those collecting the money. The backers abroad often remain unmolested. Now a 52-year-old Swiss is before the district court, who is said to have worked as a “logistician” in a middle hierarchy level.
So-called boars from Turkey often call senior citizens in Switzerland and pretend that they are police officers, public prosecutors or bank advisors.
The fraud phenomenon with so-called fake police officers is rampant in the canton of Zurich. Retirees are put under pressure over the phone by alleged police officers to scrape together their savings or withdraw cash from the bank and deposit it at an agreed place. Despite warnings from the police, it happens time and again that fraudsters steal large amounts of money or jewellery.
With phone scams like this, the police almost always only catch those collecting the money. The backers abroad remain unmolested. But now a 52-year-old Swiss man is standing before the Zurich District Court, who is said to have worked as a “logistician” in a middle hierarchy level.
An accomplice is also sentenced with him: the 30-year-old Swiss landscape gardener was a “picker”. Five times between December 2019 and February 2020 he managed to take prey from pensioners who had been tricked, three times it was just an attempt. He was arrested on February 3, 2020. His booty: a total of 82,680 francs. The tests would have cost another 110,000 francs. He was allowed to keep 300 to 400 francs per errand.
Sitting next to him is the aforementioned 52-year-old Swiss, a metalworker. He is said to have been commissioned by a long-time acquaintance in Turkey to recruit pickers in Switzerland and to transfer the loot to Turkey. He played a central role as a link, according to the responsible public prosecutor.
The identity of one of the masterminds in Turkey is known. However, the prosecutor has to admit: “The proceedings against him have been suspended.” It is not known where he is currently staying. It is known that the backers are criminal gangs abroad and organize the telephone fraud from there. They often operate with their own “call centers”. In this case, the traces lead to Antalya in Turkey. However, the prosecutor only hopes to get hold of the identified Turk if he enters Switzerland, as she says on the sidelines of the trial.
Police action in Turkey in another case
In another case, however, the investigations into the backers were more successful: According to a media release from the Public Prosecutor’s Office II of the Canton of Zurich, several people behind telephone fraud were arrested in the Turkish city of Izmir on Tuesday and house searches were carried out. The more than two dozen people arrested are suspected of having defrauded a large number of victims in Switzerland of large assets as telephone fraudsters.
In addition to the arrests, the Turkish investigative authorities have made various seizures. The action was made possible by extensive investigative work by a special commission of the Zurich cantonal police and the Zurich city police in cooperation with the Public Prosecutor’s Office II of the Canton of Zurich and the Federal Office of Justice and the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol).
Back to the current case before the District Court of Zurich: The lawsuit against the landscape gardener is quickly settled. He is fully confessed. In the investigation, he had reported even more errands, for which no victims could be found. He charged the metalworker and agreed on a deal with the public prosecutor’s office, an abbreviated procedure. The sentence proposed is a conditional prison sentence of 24 months with a long probationary period of 4 years. He spent 53 days in custody.
Issued as a detective “Moser”.
According to the indictment, “Boar” had called the senior citizens from Turkey and made them believe that their names were “Moser”, “Rosenberg” or “Meier”, and that they were police officers, prosecutors or bank consultants. The victims were told that heavily armed burglars were in their quarters. When arrested, references to the pensioners were found. Therefore, their money is no longer safe. Another variant of the story was that there had been security gaps at the victims’ bank. Therefore, they should withdraw their money.
They then had to deposit the cash and jewelry in their milk box or at a designated waste container. This is where the landscape gardener came in. He was active in Zurich, Basel and Lucerne. He needed money and was hired by the metalworker for courier services, he told the court. At first he didn’t know exactly what it was about. “At first I thought I was helping and doing someone a favor.”
When he was picked up the second or third time, however, he saw an older woman and then sought to speak to the metalworker. He was still trying to “get out of the vicious circle”. However, there is no plausible explanation for why he continued. Today he says he is “extremely sorry”.
Late confession
The 52-year-old “logistician” denied all allegations during the investigation. He has six previous convictions, mainly for traffic and weapons offences. He was in custody for a total of 36 days in March and April 2020. Now, after around two and a half years, he suddenly makes a confession in the courtroom. In doing so, however, he greatly weakens his hierarchical role.
He had been called by his long-standing Turkish acquaintance. He told him he needed a driver. Because he himself had had his driver’s license revoked, he put his colleagues, the landscape gardener, in contact, who needed money. He later agreed to keep the money for a few days. For this he received 1000 francs each time.
He had already expected that the money was “not clean”. But he thought it was going in the direction of collecting money on outstanding loans. Only when he was arrested did he find out the real background. Both suspects confess to having transferred tens of thousands of francs in cash to Turkey via Western Union.
The prosecutor is applying for a fully enforceable prison sentence of 42 months for the 52-year-old. She calculates that he must have kept around 13,500 francs for himself due to the payments to the landscape gardener and the money transfers.
The defense attorney denies his client’s function as a “logistician” and applies for a partially conditional prison sentence of 30 months: 22 months conditionally deferred, 8 months in semi-imprisonment enforceable. The accused, who has financial problems and a sick wife, currently has a permanent job with a monthly salary of CHF 5,000. A longer prison sentence serves no one and his client is “only pushed even more to the margins of society”.
Multiple fraud and money laundering
The Zurich District Court convicted both suspects of multiple fraud and money laundering, some of which were attempted. The landscape gardener receives the negotiated 24 months conditionally, the metalworker 36 months partially conditionally. This level of punishment is exactly the highest that is partially possible. 24 months are conditionally deferred, he has to serve 12 months, which will be done in semi-captivity, so that he can continue to work.
When adding up the sentence, the court theoretically arrives at 37 months, but has reduced this in order to make the partial sentence possible. “In the sense of a very last chance”, the probationary period for the conditional share is set at 5 years, as the presiding judge Corina Semadeni states.
The 52-year-old is also found guilty of seizure fraud. He had indicated to the debt enforcement office that he was being supported by the social welfare office and had concealed the attachable salary of CHF 41,000. He is also obliged to pay three victims around 62,000 francs in damages. Only 800 francs could be confiscated from him.
The court comes to the conclusion that he is an accomplice in the middle of the hierarchy and that the crimes of his backers must be taken into account. Apparently he didn’t want to know where the money came from, but acted anyway. It is therefore a classic case of “one accepts it”. His contribution to the crime was important in the construct. He recruited the money collector, coordinated and made sure that the cash got to Turkey.
Judgments DG220104 of October 27, 2022, not yet final, and DH220044 of October 27, 2022, abbreviated procedure.