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Federal jurisdiction and the Office of the Attorney General

Offences against federal interests: Article 23 CrimPC

The Federal Criminal Court can only try what the OAG may prosecute, which in turn depends on what the law assigns to federal jurisdiction. In Swiss criminal procedure the cantons are the rule and the Confederation the exception. Article 23 CrimPC lists the offences that are subject to federal jurisdiction because they affect federal interests. They include offences against the State and national defence, offences committed by or against members of federal authorities and federal officials, offences against internationally protected persons, counterfeiting of money and official stamps, offences involving explosives and radioactive materials (Arts. 224–226ter SCC), genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and, under paragraph 2, the offences that special federal acts, among them the aviation legislation, assign to the federal courts.1 Among the latter, insider dealing and market manipulation under the Financial Market Infrastructure Act are of direct relevance to the financial centre. Since 2013 they have been prosecuted by the OAG and tried in Bellinzona, which has made the court the specialized trial court for stock market offences.2

In 2025 the Criminal Chamber decided 38 cases under Article 23 CrimPC, more than twice the number of cases under Article 24 CrimPC.3 Many of these cases are of modest size, such as offences against federal officials or the use of counterfeit banknotes. A minority are among the court's most significant cases, for example insider dealing cases with millions of francs in profits or the crimes against humanity and war crimes that the court has tried under the principle of universal jurisdiction. In 2023 the Appeals Chamber confirmed the conviction of the Liberian commander Alieu Kosiah for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and in 2024 the Criminal Chamber convicted the former Gambian interior minister Ousman Sonko of crimes against humanity.4 These cases are outside the scope of this book but show that the Bellinzona court is also Switzerland's court for the most serious international crimes.

Organized crime, money laundering, corruption and economic crime: Article 24 CrimPC

For the financial centre Article 24 CrimPC is the decisive provision. Its first paragraph establishes mandatory federal jurisdiction for participation in and support of a criminal organization (Art. 260ter SCC), financing of terrorism, money laundering (Art. 305bis SCC), insufficient diligence in financial transactions (Art. 305ter SCC) and active and passive bribery, including the bribery of foreign public officials (Art. 322ter–322septies SCC), as well as for felonies committed by a criminal organization. For all these offences the federal jurisdiction applies only if they were committed to a substantial extent abroad or in several cantons without a clear focus in one of them.5 The second paragraph gives the OAG an optional jurisdiction for felonies against property and forgery offences, the classic offences of economic crime, under the same conditions of an international or intercantonal dimension, provided that no cantonal prosecution authority is dealing with the case or that the cantonal authority requests the OAG to take it over.6

The practical effect is a division of cases by their geography. A money laundering case in which the predicate offence was committed in Italy and the proceeds passed through accounts in Lugano and Zurich is a federal case. A fraud committed by a Lugano asset manager against local clients remains with the Ticino Public Prosecutor's Office and the cantonal courts, even if the amounts are large. The resulting conflicts of jurisdiction, which are frequent in borderline cases, are decided by the Board of Appeal. In 2025 it decided 83 of them.7 The Appeals Chamber has also had to decide whether the federal jurisdiction extended to all the offences charged. In 2025 it convicted a former fund manager of commercial fraud after the Criminal Chamber had declined jurisdiction for that charge and convicted him only of criminal mismanagement and forgery. The Appeals Chamber held that it had jurisdiction, found that the manipulation of a fund's prices had caused a loss of more than CHF 100 million and sentenced him to six years and seven months' imprisonment. The judgment was not final.8

Notes

  1. CrimPC, Art. 23(1) and (2), https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/3/31/312.0-23-26.html; English version at https://lawbrary.ch/law/art/STPO-v2023.07-en-art-23. Federal Criminal Court, "Das Bundesstrafgericht in Kürze" (above), summarizes the categories (offences against federal interests, explosives, aviation, nuclear energy, financial markets, war material). ↩
  2. Federal Criminal Court, "Das Bundesstrafgericht in Kürze" (above) (jurisdiction under financial market legislation). Federal Act on Financial Market Infrastructures and Market Conduct in Securities and Derivatives Trading of 19 June 2015 (FMIA), SR 958.1, Arts. 154 and 155 and Art. 156 (federal jurisdiction); federal jurisdiction for insider dealing and price manipulation since 1 May 2013. ↩
  3. Geschäftsbericht 2025 (above). ↩
  4. Federal Criminal Court, press releases of 1 June 2023 (CA.2022.8) and 15 May 2024 (SK.2023.23), listed at https://www.bstger.ch/de/media/comunicati-stampa/2023.html and https://www.bstger.ch/de/media/comunicati-stampa/2024.html. The judgment against Sonko was not final when published. ↩
  5. CrimPC, Art. 24(1), which also covers Arts. 260quinquies and 260sexies SCC and felonies emanating from a criminal or terrorist organization, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/3/31/312.0-24-27.html. Office of the Attorney General, Rapporto di gestione 2025 , 2 April 2026, https://www.bundesanwaltschaft.ch/dam/it/sd-web/4EmfmnwzGqom/Rapporto%20di %20gestione_MPC_2025.pdf, summarizes Arts. 23 and 24 CrimPC. ↩
  6. CrimPC, Art. 24(2) and (3) (felonies under Titles Two and Eleven SCC), https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/3/31/312.0-24-27.html. ↩
  7. Geschäftsbericht 2025 (above). ↩
  8. Federal Criminal Court, press release on judgment CA.2024.13, 8 September 2025, https://www.bstger.ch/de/media/comunicati-stampa/2025/2025-09-08/1500.html (first-instance judgment SK.2022.22 of 17 June 2022). Two bank employees were convicted of qualified money laundering in the same judgment. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.

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