{"id":1291,"date":"2026-09-29T00:14:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/?p=1291"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:41:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T21:41:32","slug":"money-mule-switzerland-scam-swiss-bank-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/money-mule-switzerland-scam-swiss-bank-account\/","title":{"rendered":"Scam Money Passed Through a Swiss Account: What the Victim Can Do, What the Money Mule Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key points.<\/strong> When the proceeds of an online scam pass through a bank account in Switzerland, Swiss authorities can act: the public prosecutor of the canton where the account is held can freeze what remains (Art. 263 CrimPC) and return it to the victim (Art. 70 SCC). The victim must move within hours. The account holder who forwarded the money, often recruited through a fake job, loan or relationship, is usually not the fraudster, but can still be convicted of money laundering if they accepted that the funds might be criminal (Art. 305bis SCC). Both sides need to act before the first police hearing, not after.<\/p>\n

A person who explains that they received money on their account and sent it on in exchange for a commission is generally not the author of the scam, since they were themselves deceived by the promise of a job, a loan or a relationship. The fact remains that a victim’s money passed through their account, and that the account is held in Switzerland. Two files therefore open at the same time: the victim’s, who wants the funds back, and that of the intermediary, the money mule, who discovers that the word laundering is being used about them.<\/p>\n

Why a Swiss account changes everything<\/h2>\n

A scam run from abroad usually escapes any useful prosecution, since its authors, servers and accounts sit in countries where mutual legal assistance is slow, if it exists at all. The situation changes as soon as one link in the chain is in Switzerland. Money laundering committed on Swiss territory falls within the jurisdiction of the Swiss authorities, so the public prosecutor of the canton where the account is held can open an investigation, order the production of bank statements, identify the account holder and freeze the assets still there (Art. 263 CrimPC). Those assets are meant to be returned to the injured party rather than confiscated by the State (Art. 70(1) SCC).<\/p>\n

For the victim, this is the difference between a complaint that goes nowhere and proceedings that produce results. Put simply, the Swiss account is the way into the case. But the door has to be knocked on immediately, because the account holder, if they too are being used, will have been told to forward everything within forty-eight hours.<\/p>\n

What the victim must do the same day<\/h2>\n

Three steps, in this order. First, write to your own bank and ask for the transfer to be recalled, which can still succeed if the funds have not been withdrawn. Next, gather the evidence as it stands, messages, payment orders and the details of the receiving account, without rewording or adding anything. Finally, file a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor of the canton where the receiving account is held, with a precise request for a freezing order and the bank statements attached, since a complaint that merely tells the story does not obtain a freeze.<\/p>\n

The role of the recipient’s bank is often underestimated. Once alerted to a suspicion, it can hold the assets while it reports to the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS). In a case decided in the canton of Aargau, the receiving bank blocked EUR 9,761 from a phishing attack on the very day it arrived, following an alert from the Dutch sending bank, so the intermediary could forward nothing. He was nonetheless convicted of attempted money laundering and fined CHF 1,000 (Federal Supreme Court, 6B_150\/2016 of 28 June 2016).<\/p>\n

Can a deceived money mule be prosecuted for money laundering?<\/h2>\n

A person commits money laundering if they carry out an act aimed at frustrating the identification of the origin, the tracing or the forfeiture of assets which they know or must assume originate from a felony (Art. 305bis(1) SCC). The law does not require an intention to launder. It is enough that the person considered it possible that the funds came from an offence and went ahead anyway. This form of intent, known in Swiss law as dol \u00e9ventuel<\/em> (conditional intent), is sufficient, so the intermediary’s initial good faith does not protect them.<\/p>\n

The Federal Supreme Court confirmed this in a Lucerne case whose facts are those of most such files. A man was applying for a loan from a company that did not exist and had already paid advance fees to his supposed lender. She then asked him to receive on his account the advance fees of other loan applicants, most of them living abroad, and to forward the whole amount, some CHF 35,700, by Western Union to a supposed account manager in Benin, which he did. He was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to fifty day-fines of CHF 130, suspended, and the Federal Supreme Court dismissed his appeal (6B_295\/2019 of 8 August 2019). Two lessons follow. The fraud is complete as soon as the victims’ money reaches the intermediary’s account, so forwarding it is no longer participation in the fraud but a separate act of money laundering. And the fact that the intermediary was himself deceived does not clear him, since he had considered that the funds might come from a felony.<\/p>\n

The threshold for accepting that risk is low. In another case, the person had a bad feeling about where the money came from and nonetheless exchanged it at three different banks on the same day. That unease, combined with how unusual the operation was, was enough to find that he had accepted the possibility of a criminal origin (6B_627\/2012 of 18 July 2013). In other words, the judge does not ask what the intermediary knew, but what they should have asked themselves when faced with a ten percent commission, an unexplained urgency, a cash transfer to West Africa and an employer with no address.<\/p>\n

Conversely, someone who stopped the transfer at the first doubt, warned their bank or filed a complaint themselves is in a different position, both as to guilt and as to how the proceedings continue.<\/p>\n

What the money mule should do, and not do<\/h2>\n

Do not forward what is left on the account, whatever pressure is applied. Do not delete the messages, since they are the best defence, showing how you were deceived. Do not go to the police hearing alone. From the first hearing, the accused must be told that they may refuse to testify and may call on a defence lawyer (Art. 158 CrimPC), and it is in their interest to use that right, not to stay silent, but to explain themselves once, on the basis of an organised file.<\/p>\n

The civil exposure must then be looked at squarely. The victim can sue the intermediary for damages (Art. 41 CO), and the intermediary is often the only solvent debtor in the whole chain. That exposure becomes leverage when it is dealt with early. An offender who has made reparation for the loss, or made every reasonable effort to do so, may be exempted from punishment where they face at most a suspended sentence of one year, the public interest and the victim’s interest in prosecution are minor, and they have admitted the facts (Art. 53 SCC). For an occasional intermediary, these conditions are often met. A negotiated reparation with the victim before a penalty order is issued therefore changes the outcome of the case and, often, whether a criminal record entry follows.<\/p>\n

How we handle these cases<\/h2>\n

The firm acts on both sides, never in the same case. For victims, it reconstructs the chain of transfers, drafts a complaint that makes formal requests rather than grievances, a freezing order, production of statements, identification of the next accounts, and coordinates with lawyers abroad when the funds have left Switzerland. For intermediaries, it prepares the hearing, sets the position on intent based on the actual messages and, where the file allows, opens the discussion on reparation and discontinuance. Frankly, timing decides a great deal: a case taken in hand before the hearing is rarely resolved like one taken in hand after the penalty order.<\/p>\n

Where the money went to a crypto project rather than to an isolated scammer, other charges come into play, see Disappointed investor in a Swiss crypto project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n

The money has already left for another country. Is it lost?<\/h3>\n

Not necessarily. Its passage through Switzerland creates jurisdiction, bank evidence and, in some cases, a solvent civil debtor. The complaint makes it possible to identify the next account and send a mutual assistance request to the destination country. The chances do fall with time and with every further transfer, which is why the first hours matter so much.<\/p>\n

I am the intermediary and the police have summoned me. Should I go alone?<\/h3>\n

No. You have the right to be assisted by a lawyer from the first hearing and to refuse to testify (Art. 158 CrimPC). This is not an admission, but the only way to explain, once and properly, how you were deceived.<\/p>\n

My bank account was used as a money mule without my understanding it. Will I get a criminal record?<\/h3>\n

Not automatically. It depends on whether you accepted the possibility that the money was criminal, and on what you did once you had doubts. Reparation of the victim’s loss can also lead to an exemption from punishment (Art. 53 SCC). Early advice changes the outcome.<\/p>\n

Is there a deadline to file a complaint?<\/h3>\n

Fraud and money laundering are prosecuted ex officio, with no complaint deadline. The deadline that matters is the money’s, which moves within hours, and the bank recall’s, which rarely succeeds after a few days.<\/p>\n

Your situation deserves a precise reading<\/h2>\n

Whether you are the victim of a diverted transfer or an intermediary under suspicion, the first consultation establishes what can still be frozen, what you may be accused of and what should be done within the week. It lasts forty-five minutes and can be booked on +41 22 512 76 00 or through the contact form<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swiss bank account, freezing order, money laundering and conditional intent. What a scam victim can still do, and what the money mule who forwarded the funds risks under Swiss law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-defense","category-economic-crime-fraud"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1348,"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291\/revisions\/1348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sentinelegal.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}