Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

SEX

Ex-banker convicted on sex charge in Singapore

A Swiss former banker was found guilty on Tuesday of having sex with an underage Singaporean prostitute.

Published: 30 April 2013 14:22 CEST
Ex-banker convicted on sex charge in Singapore
The former Swiss banker was convicted of sex with a minor. Photo: AFP

The case caused a scandal as it involved several prominent men in the city state.

Juerg Buergin, 41, was found guilty by a district court of two charges of having sex with a 17-year-old call girl and will be sentenced on May 8.

Judge Eddy Tham said Buergin had failed to disprove the charges that sexual intercourse between him and the girl took place on two occasions in 2010 and 2011.

Buergin, a married former executive with banking giant UBS, had said at the start of his trial in March that he was tricked into thinking the girl was older than 17.

Prostitution is legal in Singapore but it is against the law to pay for the sexual services of girls under 18, in a bid to protect the young from exploitation.

The case caused an uproar last year after Buergin and 50 other men were accused of paying for sex with the girl.

One of them was socialite and environmental activist Howard Shaw, 41, a grandson of Asian movie mogul Runme Shaw.

Buergin, who arrived in court Tuesday wearing a dark business suit, was calm and showed no visible reaction after the verdict was read.

State prosecutors asked for a sentence of "not less than six months" for each of the two charges.

Court documents show that Buergin booked the prostitute, who went by the name "Chantelle" on an escort agency's website, on two occasions in September 2010 and January 2011.

He met her at luxury hotels for paid sex.

Buergin made the bookings under a false name "Robert James" but the mobile phone number he used was traced to UBS, which had assigned the number to him, according to the documents.

Member comments

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

CRIME

‘Your permit is invalid’: Foreigners in Switzerland warned to avoid new scam

Scores of foreign residents have received an email recently telling them their residency rights in Switzerland have been revoked.

Published: 26 April 2024 11:17 CEST
Updated: 2 May 2024 15:04 CEST
'Your permit is invalid': Foreigners in Switzerland warned to avoid new scam

A number of foreign nationals, especially in the German-speaking part of the country, have received an official-looking letter, purportedly from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) informing them that the Free Movement of People agreement between Switzerland and the EU has been nullified, and therefore “your residence permit is no longer valid.”

Faced with enquiries from concerned recipients, SEM responded that the letter is fake, advising recipients to ignore it and, above all, not to click on the QR code on the top.

“Fake letters from the SEM have been circulating since the beginning of this week,” the immigration authority said on its website as well as on X (formerly Twitter).  

“The letter has no impact on the recipient’s  residence status,” SEM added.

Fake jobs, real threats

However, this is only the latest scam perpetrated in the name of SEM.

There have been others in the past.

For instance, many foreigners have also received emails from addresses swissimmigration@consultant or eu_immigration@consultant, that pretend to be the Swiss immigration authority.

“In most cases, a fictitious job in the hotel industry is offered, with the senders demanding payment of 300 to 1,000 euros for a permit in Switzerland and for health and accident insurance,” SEM reported.

The first clue that this email doesn’t come from  SEM, which is part of Switzerland’s government, is that it is asking for payment in euros. If the scammers were smarter, they’d demand Swiss francs.

“These e-mails do not come from the SEM and should be considered as an attempt at fraud,” the agency said. 

Extortion attempt

And a few years ago, a number of foreigners received emails coming allegedly from SEM, Swiss border control authorities, or even the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol).

They threatened to revoke the victim’s residence permit or even expel them from the country altogether if they didn’t pay a certain sum of money into an anonymous account.

Needless to say, no government authority would ever resort to blackmail or demand payment for such ‘services’.

So a good rule to remember (for foreigners and Swiss alike) is that if threats and pressure are involved, letters / emails / phone calls ( WhatsUp messages are more than likely scams.
 
READ ALSO: The common scams foreigners in Switzerland need to be aware of 

Don’t respond

SEM as well as police urge everyone contacted by scammers, by whatever means to:

  • Ignore these messages by hanging up the phone and / or deleting emails, moving them to the Spam folder
  • Never give out your credit card number or bank account information to people you don’t know
  • If you did give your card number, contact your credit card company immediately to have the card blocked. Likewise, if you gave out your banking details, get in touch with your bank.
  • In the event of threats of extortion attempts, consider filing a criminal complaint. You can search for police stations in your area on the Police website. 
SHOW COMMENTS