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The Radisson Hotel in Lucerne, where the criminal court is holding the fraud trial against five managers of the Lucerne public transport company due to lack of space. (archive photo)
Keystone
On the second day of the trial concerning the subsidies received from Verkehrsbetriebe Luzern AG (VBL), the defense lawyers have the floor. The lawyer for the former head of marketing and operations called for an acquittal in the criminal court on Wednesday.
The defense lawyer said that the public prosecutor had "desperately" tried to build an indictment under pressure from the media. However, this only consisted of "sweeping accusations".
The public prosecutor accuses the five defendants of fraud. Despite an agreement to the contrary, they had included imputed interest within the Group in 2018 and 2019 and thus reported excessively high costs. The VBL had thus received excessive subsidies for the scheduled bus services.
The defense lawyer said that it was a "legitimate procedure" to include imputed interest. There was no deception and therefore no fraud. It was known that the then VBL holding company charged such interest to the subsidiary that handled the bus services.
22.01.2025, 09:26
