Indictments filed in presumed Tamil terrorist financing case
Bern, 20.07.2016 - The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has indicted 13 accused associated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The indictment alleges that the accused provided financial support to the LTTE, which is regarded as a presumed terrorist organisation, through a sophisticated microcredit system.
The 13 accused, who come from Switzerland, Germany and Sri Lanka, have been charged with supporting and / or being members of a criminal organisation (Art. 260ter para.1 Swiss Criminal Code (SCC)), fraud (Art. 146 para.1 and 2 SCC), false certification (Art. 251 SCC) and money laundering (Art. 305bis SCC).
At the time of the offences, the LTTE was acting through a Swiss offshoot known as the World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC). This in turn acted through cantonal representatives. As a result of the continuing civil war in Sri Lanka, the LTTE’s – which has to be considered a Terror organisation according to Art. 26ter SCC - financial needs increased considerably. Accordingly, LTTE leaders in Switzerland devised and implemented a systematic and rapid method for obtaining money from the Tamil diaspora in Switzerland. As the investigations carried out by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland with the support of fedpol show, substantial sums of money (around CHF 15 million) were obtained from the diaspora community using couriers and loans. The LTTE remained an anonymous participant in the process by acting through the WTCC.
The mechanism for providing financial support to the LTTE essentially involved inducing members of the Tamil diaspora in Switzerland, who apparently had no links with each other, to enter into microcredit contracts in their own names but in a fiduciary capacity, and then to pass on the funds to the WTCC.
The method set up gave the WTCC complete control over the entire process of granting each credit, to the detriment of the borrowers concerned. The Tamil diaspora community was first subjected to an economic analysis and potential borrowers were identified. Members of the community entered into fiduciary microcredit contracts for sums of up to CHF 100 000, with the loans being paid to the WTCC. Exorbitant loan repayments were made using monthly donations and by taking out additional microcredits. The new microcredits were obtained from a Swiss bank the canton of Zurich.
In order to obtain the microcredits, two financial intermediaries prepared and used forged salary statements. In this way, they deceived the banks involved as to the financial circumstances of the borrowers. The loans obtained were transported in cash by couriers to Singapore and Dubai; sums of up to CHF 1 million were moved abroad each month in order to fund the purchase of weapons. The LTTE’s funding system collapsed in 2009, following the organisation’s military defeat, and the diaspora community stopped making the loan payments.
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland will submit its proposals for the penalties to be imposed at the main hearing before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. With the filing of the indictment, the Federal Criminal Court becomes responsible for providing further information.
Address for enquiries
André Marty, Head of Communications & Public Affairs of the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, +41 58 464 32 40; info@ba.admin.ch
Publisher
Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland
http://www.ba.admin.ch/
