Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIMINAL

Fake police ring nabbed in western Switzerland

Swiss police have arrested a gang of fake officers who stole tens of thousands of dollars from tourists in the Lake Geneva area this summer.

Published: 17 August 2013 11:02 CEST
Fake police ring nabbed in western Switzerland
An aerial view of Geneva. Photo: Wikipedia

The gang, made up mainly of Romanian nationals, had been posing as officers in some of the top tourist spots in Geneva and neighbouring Vaud, police said on Friday.

The set-up was always the same: a plain-clothed member of the gang would ask an unsuspecting tourist for directions, only to be interrupted by two accomplices wearing police uniforms demanding to see his and the tourist's identification.

With the tourist's wallet in hand, the phony officers discretely pocketed the cash inside.

Police said they had arrested seven members of the gang, which worked in two teams believed to be behind some 30 such cases in Geneva and five in Vaud in the past six weeks.

Victims said the gang had made off with nearly $35,000 (€26,000) in cash.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ART

Spanish banker gets jail term for trying to smuggle Picasso masterpiece out of Spain on yacht

A Spanish court has sentenced a former top banker to 18 months in jail for trying to smuggle a Picasso painting deemed a national treasure out of the country on a sailing yacht.

Published: 16 January 2020 17:21 CET
Spanish banker gets jail term for trying to smuggle Picasso masterpiece out of Spain on yacht
Head of a Young Woman by Pablo Picasso Photo: AFP

The court also fined ex-Bankinter head Jaime Botín €52.4 million ($58.4 million), according to the Madrid court ruling issued on January 14th which was made public on Thursday.   

It awarded ownership of the work, “Head of a Young Girl”, to the Spanish state.

Botin, 83, is unlikely to go to prison as in Spain first offenders for non-violent crimes are usually spared jail time for sentences of less than two years.   

French customs seized the work, which is estimated to be worth €26 million, in July 2015 on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, halting what they said was an attempt by Botin to export it to Switzerland to sell it.

His lawyers argued at the time that he was sending it for storage in a vault in Geneva but the court found him guilty of “smuggling cultural goods” for removing the painting “from national territory without a permit”.

Botin, whose family are one of the founders of the Santander banking group, had been trying since 2012 to obtain authorisation to export the painting.   

However Spain's culture ministry refused the request because there was “no similar work on Spanish territory” from the same period in Picasso's life.    

In 2015, a top Spanish court sided with the authorities and declared the work of art “unexportable” on the grounds that it was of “cultural interest”.    

Picasso painted it during his pre-Cubist phase in Gosol, Catalonia, in 1906. It was bought by Botin in London in 1977.

Botin's lawyers had argued that the work should not be subjected to an export ban since it was acquired in Britain and was on board a British-flagged vessel when it was seized.

When customs officials boarded the yacht, its captain only presented two documents — one of which was the court ruling ordering that the painting be kept in Spain.

The painting is currently stored at the Reina Sofia modern art museum in Madrid, which houses Picasso's large anti-war masterpiece “Guernica”.

READ MORE: Banking family's Picasso seized on Corsica boat

SHOW COMMENTS