Crans-Montana ski worlds chief faces trial over alleged fraud

The president of the organising committee for the 2027 Alpine Ski World Championships in Crans-Montana is to stand trial over alleged fraud involving his engineering company, SRF reported, citing Blick. Prosecutors accuse Claude-Alain Schmidhalter and a co-defendant of cheating his former business partner out of more than 300,000 francs.

The charges concern Schmidhalter’s business activities, not his role as a sports official. The Valais public prosecutor’s office accuses the two men of fraud and mismanagement and is seeking suspended prison sentences of 23 months and fines of 10,000 francs for each. It is also seeking to recover 55,000 francs from the two men for the former partner’s compensation claims.

According to the indictment, Schmidhalter and his former partner co-owned the engineering firm. Their agreement stated that a partner leaving the company would be bought out based on the firm’s value and its profits in recent years.

Prosecutors allege that when the former partner planned to retire, Schmidhalter and the co-defendant deliberately reduced the firm’s profits by routing money through excessively high invoices from another construction company. The alleged aim was to reduce the amount paid to the departing partner.

Schmidhalter has rejected the accusations. He told Blick that the investigation found the company’s accounts had been kept correctly and in line with applicable rules. He said he trusted the court and looked forward to the hearing, and would not comment further while the case was ongoing.

Swiss Ski said it was aware of the proceedings but would not comment because the case was ongoing and concerned Schmidhalter’s business activities.

The case is due to be heard on October 27 at the district court in Brig-Glis. Schmidhalter and the other defendant are presumed innocent.