While the parliament is to decide on Monday to create a parliamentary commission of inquiry, the Crypto affair will also occupy the criminal justice system. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) has indeed filed a complaint for manipulations in the sale of encryption devices.
Such procedures could violate export control law. The criminal complaint was filed against unknown Tuesday with the Public Ministry of the Confederation, said Sunday the spokesman of Seco confirming an information of the SonntagsZeitung.
Investigation of the complaint
Confirming for its part having received the complaint, the Public Ministry of the Confederation clarified that no criminal proceedings have yet been opened. The MPC will now examine whether there are enough suspicions to continue the investigations and whether the matter is indeed under federal jurisdiction.
According to the weekly, Seco’s complaint invokes section 14 of the Goods Control Act. Anyone reporting incorrect or incomplete information in a request that is essential for the granting of a license would therefore fall under the law. Seco argued that it would never have approved exports of the devices if it had known who was behind Crypto AG until 2018.
Already other surveys
The case broke out almost three weeks ago. The CIA and the German intelligence services (BND) have, for decades, intercepted thousands of documents via the encryption devices of the company Crypto. Thanks to rigged devices, the CIA and the BND listened to the conversations of more than 100 foreign states, particularly in the Muslim world and in Latin America.
According to media reports, the Swiss authorities have been informed. However, several federal advisers at the time denied knowing it. Former federal judge Niklaus Oberholzer has been investigating the case since January 2020, at the request of the Federal Council, informed of the case at the end of 2019 by defense minister Viola Amherd.
At the parliamentary level, the delegation of management committees is also seized. The question of the parliamentary commission of inquiry, desired by the pink-green camp in particular, will be discussed by the office of the parliament on Monday.
Some readings
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