The high fog turns everything gray. Pierin Vincenz has been waiting for ten minutes at the side of his defense attorney Lorenz Erni in front of the closed front door of the Zurich Volkshaus in District 4.
It’s Tuesday, just before 4 p.m. – the second round on the first day of negotiations in the most sensational economic process in a long time. Shy, almost reverent, journalists surround the man whose everyday life they have now dissected for weeks – right down to every single visit to the bar. The accused smiles, he seems likeable and mischievous. Nights with him at the King’s Club must have been fun. Is Vincenz enjoying the situation? Or is he a cunning mime?
Who is behind the facade?
The former Graubünden star banker, the fallen luminary of the financial world, once celebrated as an alternative to the “gnomes of the Bahnhofstrasse”, is a sphinx for the public. Is there just an irreproachable knight of success with too many envious people behind the casual facade? A savings bank administrator from the province who has risen too high? Or in the sense of the prosecution the insatiable Zaster-Zampano, a member of the species that Michael Douglas embodied in the 1987 film “Wall Street”?
In any case, during the court questioning, Gordon Gekko – to stay with screen heroes – turns into accountant Nötzli. Suddenly, the otherwise sovereign Vincenz talks about head and collar.
Preferred means of payment: company credit card
He stands before the tribunal like a husband who has to explain an infidelity to his wife. Regarding the bill that he had burdened the employer with, he says that it was “a mistake” and that another unjustified expense was “a mistake”. A speaker would like to know whether there were also booking errors in favor of Raiffeisen. The company credit card was his preferred means of payment, he replies.
Although the damage in the alleged double game with hidden involvement is said to be millions, it is expenses of a few hundred thousand francs that make the case so popular.
Dinner at the strip club?
If you went to the cabaret for dinner or only afterwards, the court wants to know. Vincenz: “After dinner, the talks continued there.” How come strip club expenses are booked as dinner? It was just such a special regulation, “it has become so naturalized”. The man who was shot says that he spoke to the Chairman of the Raiffeisen Board of Directors about where these expenses came from. But he contradicts according to the interrogation protocols.
Further contradictions follow, from which Vincenz cannot really free himself. What was business about the family trip to Australia? “Australia was known for a very intensive branch network.” He wanted to see that. Whereupon a judge dryly stated that the main defendant had “studied counter halls and customer areas of banks” Down Under without meeting a single industry representative. The travel agency Kuoni has explicitly announced a Christmas trip. Ayers Rock, Alice Springs and Kangaroo Island were on the itinerary.
“I was still inexperienced”
When it comes to hidden investments in companies with which Vincenz made millions in Raiffeisen deals with the credit card company Aduno, an answer follows with cult potential. When asked why he had not disclosed his share purchases because of conflicts of interest and had withdrawn: “I was still inexperienced.”
At that time, Vincenz was around 50 and had been in the business for years.
Imagine a mayor who turns out to have given an order to her husband’s advertising booth: “I was still inexperienced.” Or a department head who had given her daughter an internship instead of a more suitable applicant: “I was still inexperienced.” The KV apprentice, in whose examination paper copied passages appear: “I was still inexperienced.”
Centered organic Swiss
At that moment, the audience no longer has a good feeling that Vincenz can get out of the matter unscathed. Then Beat Stocker appears.
Vinzenz’s partner also bears an indigenous Swiss surname, as is the case with almost all of the business people named at this trial. In this profit-oriented milieu, it was primarily the organic Swiss, comfortably settled in the middle, who called the shots: far and wide no expats, secondos or parvenus. You didn’t belong to that thoroughly globalized caste from Paradeplatz, which had fallen into disrepute during the 2007 financial crisis.
In this drama, only dancers and prostitutes have a migration background.
Stocker blossoms
Plagued by multiple sclerosis, Stocker thrives in court. Unlike Vincenz, he does not present himself as a retiree playing golf, but as a doer who sees an opportunity everywhere: “This study also gave me entrepreneurial ideas that I am committed to.” Stocker also provides amusement from time to time. The president of the court asks him whether he studied law. “Fortunately not,” replies the economist in front of all the lawyers in the room.
Stocker also remains supple when it comes to the nitty-gritty. He parries the accusations against him with an artistic pause, which is then followed by speech acrobatics.
“Skin in the Game”
The secrecy surrounding the holdings? Stocker takes a breath and sighs at this constant “reflex participation equals conflict of interest”. As if adhering to basic compliance principles was a misplaced fad. He is still convinced that this conflict does not have to occur.
And the discretion? That would have made it easier for him to get more investors. At the same time, his co-investor Vincenz was protected from “desires” from other entrepreneurs. In general, Stocker prefers to talk about “responsibility”, about “skin in the game”, i.e. the personal risk that he has taken.
“Should have informed the board of directors”
There are hardly any spontaneous statements that Stocker makes, but answers that have matured over the years of the criminal proceedings. Always coherent. And if not, it says: “Didn’t remember it that way.” Or: “This is my aided memory now.” And the idea of the Raiffeisen Stadium? “Was a fart.”
He only hesitates when it comes to concealing his dual role as Aduno CEO and Commtrain shareholder in personal union: “I should have informed the board of directors.” That had become clear to him after the opinion of lawyer Peter Forstmoser, in the meantime he had been “purified under civil law”. Apparently, managers at this altitude need expensive expertise in order to learn about the simplest rules of corporate governance. The reason for Stocker’s statement does not seem to be remorse, but something more banal: “I would have had less trouble today if I had informed.”
Make room for the ballet
With jovial condescension, he shows his disappointment at the younger, ambitious public prosecutors. He was outraged when he read what criminal energy was expected of him. “I thought that they would have gotten to know me better in this investigation.” The defendant’s behavior threatens to turn into arrogance. Will Stocker’s Operation Teflon pay off? We will see.
On the third day, the court moves to a smaller hall. The concert hall is reserved for a ballet performance (Raiffeisen customers enjoy a discount, Blick Online knows). Only 15 media people will be admitted. Lukas Hässig, the journalist who published the very first article on the case in 2016 and thus initiated the Causa Vincenz, must also remain outside.
The secret star of the process
The pleadings of the parties follow. The prosecution boasts a tapped phone call and a note intended to prove the duo’s systematic approach.
Day four belongs to the secret star of the process, Vincenz’ prominent lawyer Lorenz Erni. It was also he who gave the first vote at the hearing on Tuesday after the opening by court president Sebastian Aeppli. He brings an unpopular request, “but I’m not here to ensure popularity, but to comply with the code of criminal procedure”.
The defenders counterattack
Erni had unsuccessfully demanded that the proceedings be terminated because a co-defendant would not be questioned until February for health reasons. He did so in a rather didactic tone. Anyone who disciplines the court as bluntly as Erni needs a good deal of professional self-confidence.
Then, on Friday, he spent five hours tearing apart the indictment, rejecting all the allegations, highlighting Vincenz’ achievements for the bank, questioning his client’s participation in the companies – except for Commtrain – and thus the basis of the indictment. Stocker’s lawyer Andreas Blattmann is also demanding his client’s full acquittal. In terms of rhetoric, he relies on staid arguments, the perfect tactic to put the legal layperson to sleep.
He wrapped everyone around his finger
The process observers are cautious with forecasts. A lawyer involved believes it is quite possible that only “peanuts” will remain. In other words: a conviction for the expenses story, but not for commercial fraud. The presumption of innocence applies to all accused.
Whatever the verdict, the public is primarily puzzled as to how Pierin Vincenz, who earned tens of millions as a bank boss, managed to be in debt today, according to his own statements. A decade ago he was everyone’s darling and wrapped everyone around his finger, from the show scene to the Zurich guilds to Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf. In 2015 he received the “Arosa humor shovel”. And yes, he was also welcome at Ringier, which publishes the Sunday newspaper. He was at the top of Olympus.
Since Vincenz has been on trial, mockery and malice have been poured out over him. That is understandable – and yet the following lines of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche should be remembered: “He’s sinking, he’s falling now, you jeer every now and then; The truth is: he descends to you.”