Federal government takes Bus Ostschweiz and BLS to court

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• Former managers of the transport companies Bus Ostschweiz and BLS are suspected of having fraudulently obtained over 15 million francs in subsidies.
• This is the result of a preliminary federal investigation.
• The cases will now be referred to the cantonal courts after the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) has established considerable culpability.
• The companies concerned have already reached an agreement with the federal government and the cantons and have repaid the unlawfully received amounts.

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Former managers of the transport companies Bus Ostschweiz and BLS are suspected of having fraudulently obtained a total of over CHF 15 million in subsidies. This is the result of a preliminary federal investigation. The cases will now be referred to the cantonal courts.

This was announced by the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) on Wednesday. Two and a half years ago, it initiated a criminal investigation against the two transport companies for alleged subsidy fraud. A year later, three former managers of Bus Ostschweiz and two former BLS managers came under scrutiny.

In the results of the investigation, the FOT came to the conclusion that the culpability of the persons responsible and the illegally obtained sums were considerable. In the case of BLS, the amount in question is around CHF 10 million, and for Bus Ostschweiz around CHF 5.5 million.

An agreement was reached between the companies, the federal government and the cantons concerned in 2021 (BLS) and 2023 (Bus Ostschweiz) regarding the repayment of the unduly received subsidies. The amounts were repaid.