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The Lebanon Connection and the Kopp affair, 1987–1990

The seizure in Bellinzona

The case that ended the career of a Federal Councillor began with drugs found in Ticino. In February 1987 the authorities in Bellinzona seized about 100 kilograms of morphine base and heroin, which the press described as the largest seizure ever made in Switzerland. The investigation was conducted by the public prosecutor's office of the Sopraceneri in Bellinzona.1 At its head stood Dick Marty, who had joined the Ticino prosecution service as a deputy prosecutor in 1975 and was public prosecutor of the Sopraceneri from 1978 to 1989. He later sat in the Ticino Council of State from 1989 to 1995 and in the Council of States from 1995 to 2011.2 The drugs had come by the Balkan route from Turkey, and the investigation followed the payment chain backwards. It found a system in which dollars from drug sales in Europe and the United States were collected in Sofia and elsewhere, carried by couriers to Zurich, exchanged into Swiss francs and gold through currency and precious metals dealers, and then paid out to suppliers in Turkey and the Middle East.

In July 1988 four Lebanese couriers were arrested in Zurich after bringing "dirty dollars" from Sofia for conversion into Swiss francs. By early November 1988 the Bellinzona prosecutors had arrested nine persons: six Lebanese, one Syrian, one Swiss of Turkish origin and one Turkish national. They announced that between CHF 1.5 and 2 billion of drug proceeds had been laundered through Swiss banks, the largest such case discovered in Switzerland so far. Credit Suisse and the Union Bank of Switzerland opened internal investigations to determine whether their staff had breached the banks' due diligence agreement.3 Foreign press reports spoke of USD 1 to 1.5 billion and described the operation as run by Lebanese and Turkish nationals.4 The case became known as the "Lebanon Connection", a name that echoed the "Pizza Connection" and the "French Connection" before it.

Shakarchi Trading and the telephone call of 27 October 1988

Among the companies whose accounts were used was Shakarchi Trading AG of Zurich, a dealer in currencies and gold whose president was the Lebanese businessman Mohammed Shakarchi. The company was suspected of having served the network through gold transactions between Turkey and Switzerland.5 Its vice-chairman was the Zurich lawyer Hans W. Kopp, husband of Federal Councillor Elisabeth Kopp, who had been elected on 2 October 1984 as the first woman in the Federal Council and headed the Federal Department of Justice and Police.6 On 27 October 1988 Elisabeth Kopp telephoned her husband and asked him to resign from the board of Shakarchi Trading. He did so the same day. In his later testimony he said that the call had lasted two or three minutes and that he had resigned "for love of my wife, as she requested it". Five minutes later Katharina Schoop, Elisabeth Kopp's personal adviser, gave him further information about the probable involvement of Shakarchi in money laundering.7

The information came from the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, which belonged to Kopp's own department. Its official Jacques-André Kaeslin had written the reports that set the affair in motion, and the information at issue concerned, among others, the Magharian brothers, who were suspected by investigators of laundering drug money.8 Kopp at first maintained that she had not passed on official information. When the press reported the telephone call on 8 December 1988, she admitted on 9 December that she had called her husband to warn him about investigations concerning Shakarchi Trading AG.9 On 12 December 1988 she announced that she would resign. She had planned to leave at the end of February 1989, but after an internal report by the special prosecutor Hans Hungerbühler revealed the full extent of the information passed to her husband, she left office with immediate effect on 12 January 1989.10

Date Event Feb. 1987 Seizure of about 100 kg of morphine base and heroin in Bellinzona July 1988 Arrest of four Lebanese couriers in Zurich 27 Oct. 1988 Telephone call; H. W. Kopp leaves Shakarchi Trading Nov. 1988 Bellinzona prosecutors announce CHF 1.5–2 billion laundered 12 Dec. 1988 Elisabeth Kopp announces her resignation 12 Jan. 1989 Resignation takes effect 31 Jan. 1989 Parliament establishes a commission of inquiry (PUK) 24 Nov. 1989 PUK report published Feb. 1990 Federal Court acquits Elisabeth Kopp 23 Mar. 1990 Parliament adopts Articles 305bis and 305ter SCC

Notes

  1. L'Impartial, 5 November 1988 (as above). ↩
  2. "Dick Marty", French Wikipedia, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Marty (consulted as a last resort; substitute prosecutor in 1975, public prosecutor for the northern part of the canton from 1978 to 1989, Council of State 1989–1995, Council of States 1995–2011); "Dick Marty", German Wikipedia, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Marty (Council of State 1989–1995, Council of States 1995– 2011). ↩
  3. L'Impartial, 5 November 1988 (as above). ↩
  4. "Swiss minister resigns", Deseret News (Associated Press), 12 December 1988, https://www.deseret.com/1988/12/12/18787402/swiss-minister-resigns/ (about USD 1 billion; operation run by Lebanese and Turkish nationals); Ellen Wallace, "Issue of drug-money laundering leads to Swiss resignation", The Christian Science Monitor, 19 December 1988, https://proof.csmonitor.com/1988/1219/okopp.html (USD 1.5 billion; nine arrests; "Switzerland's largest money-laundering prosecution ever"). ↩
  5. L'Impartial, 5 November 1988 (as above) ("Mohammed Sharkarchi", president of Shakarchi Trading; gold trade between Turkey and Switzerland). The sources consulted record no conviction of the company or its owner in connection with the affair. ↩
  6. Fabienne Amlinger, "Kopp, Elisabeth", in DSS, version of 10 May 2022, https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/it/articles/004737/2022-05-10/; L'Impartial, 5 November 1988 (as above) for Hans W. Kopp's position as vice-president. ↩
  7. "L'Impartial", 23 February 1990, report on the trial before the Federal Court, digitized at https://doc.rero.ch/record/110968/files/1990-02-21.pdf?version=1. ↩
  8. L'Impartial, 23 February 1990 (as above) (testimony of Jacques-André Kaeslin; information about the Magharian brothers). ↩
  9. Année politique suisse, Dossier: Affäre Kopp, 1988–1990 , Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Universität Bern, https://anneepolitique.swiss/dossiers/681-affare-kopp.pdf; Wallace (as above) for the press disclosure of 8 December 1988. ↩
  10. Année politique suisse (as above); Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland, subject "Affäre Kopp (1988– 1989)", https://dodis.ch/T2723 (Federal Council minutes of 13 and 14 December 1988; announced departure at the end of February 1989); Amlinger (as above) for 12 January 1989. ↩

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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