Pierin Vincenz: Swiss bank boss convicted in fraud trial after putting strip clubs on expenses

The former head of a Swiss bank has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison after claiming nearly 200,000 Swiss francs (£165,000) on expenses to cover his strip club visits.

Pierin Vincenz was convicted at Zurich's district court on Wednesday after one of Switzerland's highest-profile corporate crime trials in decades.

The 65-year-old once Swiss "banker of the year", who denies any wrongdoing, was charged with making millions through illicit deals while chief executive of Raiffeisen Switzerland.

While he was acquitted on several counts, Vincenz was fined 840,000 Swiss francs (£691,000) and ordered to pay nearly 1.6 million francs (£1.3m) in damages to firms he was involved with.

Following the sentencing, his lawyer told Reuters news agency that Vincenz would appeal the verdict after he was sentenced to three to four years in prison.

Vincenz told the court that a near 200,000 Swiss franc expenses bill for strip club visits was largely business-related.

He also tried to justify a 700 franc dinner with a woman he met on dating app Tinder because he was considering her for a real estate job.

Judge Sebastian Aeppli was not convinced by Vincenz's testimony, telling the court that the expense claims went too far and were not in his employer's interests.

"(His) understanding, whereby practically all expenditures of a business person fall under disposable company expenses so long as any remote connection to the business activity exists, clearly went too far," the judge said.

He added that the relationship maintenance Vincenz carried out in cabarets, strip clubs and contact bars "was no longer in the primary interest of Raiffeisen".

Judge Aeppli also highlighted that the prudent handling of Raiffeisen's finances would have meant limiting tabs to 1,000 Swiss francs (£822) or less per occasion.

The fraud trial, which began in January at a courthouse but was moved to Zurich's Volkshaus theatre due to intense public interest, centred around conflicts of interest on deals between several firms involving Vincenz and another defendant.

All seven defendants in the trial denied the allegations against them.

The judge ordered Vincenz to pay Raiffeisen more than 260,000 Swiss francs (£214,000) over expenses he charged to the bank.

He was also ordered to pay a further 1.3 million francs (£1m) to compensate for damages incurred by another firm over a corporate transaction.

Prosecutors tried to seek nearly 70 million Swiss francs (£57.5m) in total in assets from the defendants, and also pursued financial penalties and prison sentences ranging from two to six years for all but one of them.

Prosecutor Marc Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel said his office would await the written verdict as well as other parties' next moves before deciding on any possible appeal, also telling reporters that the court had largely supported the prosecutors' charges.