Hardship for the Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss (85) in the USA. The Bernese entrepreneur and patron is the founder of the Wyss Foundation, headquartered in Washington DC. The foundation advocates a wide range of charitable causes – for people and nature. According to allegations, the Wyss Foundation is also said to have interfered in US politics. A US supervisory group calls for an investigation into the influence of the Swiss on elections. This emerges from a complaint received by the national electoral authority on Friday, such as the “New York Post” reported.
According to the Americans for Public Trust watchdog group, there is reason to believe that Wyss, through its nonprofit organizations, has “transferred funds to a wide variety of organizations whose primary purpose is to promote election campaigns.” Foreigners in the USA are prohibited by law from making direct or indirect contributions to political committees.
The reclusive Wyss made his fortune from his medical device company Synthes, which was sold to Johnson & Johnson for $ 20 billion. Wyss now lives in the state of Wyoming and, according to the complainants, is “apparently neither US citizen nor holder of a green card”, as the “Post” writes. That would mean that he cannot legally donate to political campaigns. Or that Wyss becomes a victim of the domestic political mud battle in the USA. The Watchdog Americans for Public Trust was founded in 2020, is close to the Republicans and is considered right-wing conservative.
$ 200 million
According to allegations, more than 200 million dollars have flowed from Wyss over four years to groups that support Democrats and liberal circles. In 2019, the Berger Action Fund, which is affiliated with his foundation, transferred $ 35 million to the shadowy “Dark Money” network. The goal of the network is to overthrow Republicans and promote Democrats. A victim of this campaign is said to have been the elected Arizona Senator Martha McSally (55). She lost her seat to a Democratic challenger in November.
According to allegations, the Swiss Wyss had a direct influence on elections in the USA. It has become clear that there is a lot of entanglements, watchdog attorney Adam Paul Laxalt is quoted as saying. “We felt it was important to get an investigation to see if Wyss, as a non-American citizen, put money into the American electoral system.” Specifically: Wyss could have illegally donated tens of millions to groups that spoke out against former President Donald Trump (74).
Wyss makes US headlines
Wyss made headlines last month. He was on the verge of buying the “Tribune Publishing” publisher, to which numerous traditional US daily newspapers belong. Wyss withdrew from the bidding process at the last minute and the publisher went to a hedge fund.
The New York Times exposed Wyss’s political ties in the USA at the beginning of May. The Swiss had “tacitly” become one of the most important donors of left interest groups and an “increasingly influential force” among the Democrats.
Wyss, who grew up in Bern and went to the USA as a student in 1963, does not like to talk about his political activism. “We are committed to numerous social projects in the USA, many of which are not even known because I do not want to be openly politically active,” he told the “Bilanz” last year about the work of his Wyss Foundation. (kes)