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A former SBB site manager awarded contracts to an architect friend.
KEYSTONE
A former SBB construction manager has been found guilty by the Federal Criminal Court. He accepted bribes from an architect. The case casts SBB in a bad light.
A former SBB site manager has been convicted of bribery by the Federal Criminal Court. The 68-year-old had received payments totaling CHF 18,000 from an architect friend in order to obtain contracts, as reported by the "Aargauer Zeitung" newspaper.
The allegations against the construction manager and the architect go back more than a decade. The proceedings against the architect were severed as he was on sick leave and did not appear in court.
The site manager appeared alone for the verdict, at which single judge Alberto Fabbri found him guilty on three out of four counts. In the first case, the architect had handed over CHF 4,000 to the site manager in order to obtain orders worth CHF 80,000, which, however, did not materialize. Nevertheless, the construction manager was found guilty as the bribe could have influenced the awarding of the contract.
In the second case, the site manager was acquitted as there was no official activity for SBB, although he had received 6,000 francs to procure orders for the architect as a subcontractor.
In the third case, the site manager received CHF 4,000 and then awarded a contract worth CHF 10,000. The judge rejected the site manager's argument that the cost ratio made no sense and declared that there was no standard rate for bribery.
In the fourth case, the site manager was again found guilty as he received CHF 4,000, while the architect had an open offer for CHF 45,000. The contract was not awarded because SBB had tightened its procurement guidelines. However, the passive bribery could be proven through the e-mail correspondence.
The prosecution failed on other points and the site manager was acquitted of the charge of misconduct in public office, as no inflated invoices had been negotiated. The accusation of breach of official secrecy could not be upheld either, as the limitation period had expired.
The judge classified the site manager's culpability as minor and sentenced him to a conditional fine. However, the guilty verdict represents an image problem for both the site manager and SBB.
The editor wrote this article with the help of AI.
