Federal Act
on the Freezing and the Restitution of Illicit Assets
held by Foreign Politically Exposed Persons
(Foreign Illicit Assets Act, FIAA)

This Act gov­erns the freez­ing, con­fis­ca­tion and resti­tu­tion of as­sets held by for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates, where there is reas­on to as­sume that those as­sets were ac­quired through acts of cor­rup­tion, crim­in­al mis­man­age­ment or by oth­er felon­ies.

With­in the mean­ing of the present Act:

a.

for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons means in­di­vidu­als who are or have been en­trus­ted with prom­in­ent pub­lic func­tions by a for­eign coun­try, for ex­ample heads of State or of gov­ern­ment, seni­or politi­cians at the na­tion­al level, seni­or gov­ern­ment, ju­di­cial or mil­it­ary of­fi­cials at the na­tion­al level, im­port­ant polit­ic­al party of­fi­cials at the na­tion­al level and seni­or ex­ec­ut­ives of State-owned cor­por­a­tions of na­tion­al im­port­ance;

b.

close as­so­ci­ates means nat­ur­al per­sons who are known to be in close as­so­ci­ation with the per­sons defined in sub­para­graph (a) by reas­on of a fam­ily, per­son­al or busi­ness re­la­tion­ship;

c.

as­sets means prop­erty of any kind, wheth­er tan­gible or in­tan­gible, mov­able or im­mov­able.

1 In or­der to sup­port fu­ture co­oper­a­tion with­in the frame­work of mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance pro­ceed­ings with the coun­try of ori­gin, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may or­der the freez­ing of as­sets in Switzer­land:

a.

over which for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates have power of dis­pos­al;

b.

of which for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates are the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers; or

c.

which be­long to a leg­al en­tity:

1.

through which for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates hold dir­ect or in­dir­ect power of dis­pos­al over those as­sets, or

2.

of which for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates are the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers.

2 An as­set freeze shall be ad­miss­ible if the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are met:

a.

the gov­ern­ment or cer­tain mem­bers of the gov­ern­ment of the coun­try of ori­gin have lost power, or a change in power ap­pears in­ex­or­able;

b.

the level of cor­rup­tion in the coun­try of ori­gin is no­tori­ously high;

c.

it ap­pears likely that the as­sets were ac­quired through acts of cor­rup­tion, crim­in­al mis­man­age­ment or oth­er felon­ies;

d.

the safe­guard­ing of Switzer­land's in­terests re­quires the freez­ing of the as­sets.

3 Pri­or to or­der­ing an as­set freeze, and bar­ring ex­i­gent cir­cum­stances, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall in­quire in­to the po­s­i­tion of Switzer­land’s main part­ner coun­tries, and of in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions, with re­gard to freez­ing or­ders. As a rule, it shall co­ordin­ate the tim­ing and sub­stance of the meas­ures it or­ders with meas­ures taken by those coun­tries and or­gan­isa­tions.

1 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may or­der an as­set freeze in Switzer­land in an­ti­cip­a­tion of ini­ti­at­ing pro­ceed­ings for the con­fis­ca­tion of as­sets:

a.

over which for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates have power of dis­pos­al;

b.

of which for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates are the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers; or

c.

which be­long to a leg­al en­tity:

1.

through which for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates hold dir­ect or in­dir­ect power of dis­pos­al over those as­sets, or

2.

of which for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates are the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers.

2 An as­set freeze shall be ad­miss­ible if the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are met:

a.

the as­sets have been made sub­ject to a pro­vi­sion­al seizure or­der with­in the frame­work of in­ter­na­tion­al leg­al as­sist­ance pro­ceed­ings in crim­in­al mat­ters in­stig­ated at the re­quest of the coun­try of ori­gin;

b.

the coun­try of ori­gin is un­able to sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments for mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance ow­ing to the total or sub­stan­tial col­lapse, or the impair­ment, of its ju­di­cial sys­tem (fail­ure of state struc­tures);

c.

the safe­guard­ing of Switzer­land's in­terests re­quires the freez­ing of the as­sets.

3 An as­set freeze shall also be ad­miss­ible where, fol­low­ing re­ceipt of a re­quest for mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance, co­oper­a­tion with the coun­try of ori­gin proves to be im­possible be­cause there are reas­ons to be­lieve that pro­ceed­ings in the coun­try of ori­gin do not sat­is­fy the es­sen­tial prin­ciples of pro­ced­ure fore­seen in Art­icle 2 let­ter a of the Mu­tu­al As­sist­ance Act of 20 March 1981³ and where the safe­guard­ing of Switzer­land's in­terests so re­quires.

1 Where the as­set freeze ordered pur­su­ant to Art­icle 3 of this Act takes the form of an ad­min­is­trat­ive or­din­ance (as­set freeze or­din­ance), the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of For­eign Af­fairs (FD­FA) may amend the list of per­sons named in the as­set freeze, as ap­pen­ded to that or­din­ance. Fol­low­ing con­sulta­tion with the oth­er de­part­ments con­cerned, the FD­FA may add or re­move the names of for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates where in­ter­na­tion­al co­ordin­a­tion with the main part­ner coun­tries and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions or the safe­guard­ing of Switzer­land’s in­terests so re­quires.

2 The FD­FA shall im­me­di­ately re­move from that list the names of those per­sons against whom the freeze is found to be ground­less.

3 The list of the names of per­sons ap­pen­ded to the as­set freeze or­din­ance shall be pub­lished in the Of­fi­cial Com­pil­a­tion of Fed­er­al Le­gis­la­tion. It may in­clude per­son­al and sens­it­ive data con­cern­ing, in par­tic­u­lar, cur­rent or past mem­ber­ship of a polit­ic­al party or the ex­ist­ence of pending crim­in­al or ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ceed­ings or sanc­tions.

1 A freeze ordered pur­su­ant to Art­icle 3 shall be lim­ited to a max­im­um dur­a­tion of four years. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may ex­tend the freeze for an ad­di­tion­al year, re­new­able an­nu­ally, where the coun­try of ori­gin has ex­pressed its will­ing­ness to co­oper­ate with­in the frame­work of mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance pro­ceed­ings. The max­im­um dur­a­tion of the as­set freeze is ten years.

2 As­sets frozen pur­su­ant to Art­icle 4 shall re­main frozen un­til such time as the de­cision con­cern­ing their con­fis­ca­tion be­comes en­force­able. Where no pro­ceed­ings for con­fis­ca­tion of the as­sets have been in­stig­ated with­in a peri­od of 10 years from the date the freez­ing or­der is­sued pur­su­ant to Art­icle 4 be­comes en­force­able, the freeze on the as­sets shall be lif­ted.

1 Per­sons or in­sti­tu­tions who hold or man­age in Switzer­land as­sets of per­sons af­fected by an as­set freeze with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 3 must im­me­di­ately re­port these as­sets to the Money Laun­der­ing Re­port­ing Of­fice Switzer­land (MROS).

2 Per­sons or in­sti­tu­tions that neither hold nor man­age such as­sets in Switzer­land, but who have know­ledge there­of by vir­tue of the func­tions they per­form, must re­port the as­sets im­me­di­ately to MROS.

3 Based on re­ports re­ceived pur­su­ant to para­graph 2, MROS may re­quest in­form­a­tion from any per­son or in­sti­tu­tion that may hold or man­age as­sets covered by a freeze ordered un­der the pro­vi­sions of the present Act.

4 Per­sons or in­sti­tu­tions sub­ject to the terms of para­graphs 1 to 3 have the fur­ther duty to pro­duce, at the re­quest of MROS, all in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments re­lat­ing to the re­por­ted as­sets as may be re­quired for the en­force­ment of the present Act, to the ex­tent that they pos­sess any such in­form­a­tion.

5 Law­yers and not­ar­ies are not sub­ject to the duty to re­port and in­form where they are con­strained by the duty of pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 321 of the Swiss Crim­in­al Code⁴,

6 MROS shall trans­mit the in­form­a­tion re­ceived pur­su­ant to the pro­vi­sions of para­graphs 1 to 3 to the FD­FA and the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice (FOJ). The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the pro­ced­ures for co­oper­a­tion in the frame­work of this Act between the FD­FA, the FOJ and the MROS.

1 Per­sons and in­sti­tu­tions who hold or man­age in Switzer­land as­sets that have been made sub­ject to a freez­ing or­der pur­su­ant to the terms of this Act shall con­tin­ue to ad­min­is­ter them once the or­der has been is­sued. They shall in­form the FD­FA im­me­di­ately where the value of the as­sets is at risk of de­clin­ing rap­idly or the cost of main­tain­ing the as­sets is ex­cess­ive.

2 Per­sons and in­sti­tu­tions who ad­min­is­ter frozen as­sets pur­su­ant to para­graph 1 shall provide the FD­FA, on its re­quest, with all in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments re­lat­ing to the freez­ing and man­age­ment of the as­sets in ques­tion.

3 The prin­ciples that gov­ern the in­vest­ment of seized as­sets ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to the ad­min­is­tra­tion of as­sets frozen un­der the pro­vi­sions of this Act.

4 The FD­FA may or­der the meas­ures ne­ces­sary to avoid the risk of a rap­id de­cline in the value of the as­sets or ex­cess­ive main­ten­ance costs, in­clud­ing the im­me­di­ate li­quid­a­tion of the as­sets pur­su­ant to the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 11 April 1889⁵ on Debt En­force­ment and Bank­ruptcy. The terms of para­graph 1 also ap­ply to the li­quid­a­tion pro­ceeds.

5 Where a freeze on the as­sets has also been im­posed with­in the frame­work of crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings or of mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance pro­ceed­ings, man­age­ment of the as­sets is the re­spons­ib­il­ity solely of the au­thor­ity over­see­ing the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings or the mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance pro­ceed­ings. That au­thor­ity shall in­form the FD­FA be­fore or­der­ing the freeze to be lif­ted.

In ex­cep­tion­al cases, in par­tic­u­lar in cases of hard­ship or where the safe­guard­ing of im­port­ant Swiss in­terests so re­quires, the FD­FA may au­thor­ise the re­lease of a por­tion of the frozen as­sets.

1 Throughout the peri­od in which the as­set freeze is in force, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may in­struct the FD­FA to seek an am­ic­able set­tle­ment so as to per­mit the full or par­tial resti­tu­tion of the frozen as­sets. Art­icles 17 through 19 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to this resti­tu­tion.

2 Any am­ic­able set­tle­ment is sub­ject to the ap­prov­al of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

3 If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil ap­proves the am­ic­able set­tle­ment, it shall lift the freeze on the as­sets.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide the coun­try of ori­gin with as­sist­ance in its ef­forts to ob­tain resti­tu­tion of the frozen as­sets.

1 The FD­FA and the FOJ may, after con­sult­ing one an­oth­er, provide the coun­try of ori­gin with tech­nic­al as­sist­ance.

2 They may, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

as­sist in the train­ing of the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies and provide them with leg­al ad­vice;

b.

or­gan­ise bi­lat­er­al or mul­ti­lat­er­al con­fer­ences or meet­ings;

c.

second ex­perts to the coun­try of ori­gin.

3 The FD­FA shall co­ordin­ate these meas­ures with the oth­er de­part­ments con­cerned and may co­oper­ate with qual­i­fied do­mest­ic and in­ter­na­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions for their im­ple­ment­a­tion.

1 MROS may trans­mit to its coun­ter­part abroad in the coun­try of ori­gin any in­form­a­tion, in­clud­ing bank in­form­a­tion, that it has ob­tained un­der the pro­vi­sions of this Act in or­der to per­mit that coun­try to pre­pare a re­quest for mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance from Switzer­land or to com­plete an in­suf­fi­ciently sub­stan­ti­ated re­quest.

2 The trans­mis­sion of in­form­a­tion ob­tained by MROS un­der the pro­vi­sions of this Act shall pro­ceed sub­ject to the terms set out in Art­icle 30, Art­icle 31 let­ter b and c and Art­icle 32 para­graph 3 of the Anti-Money Laun­der­ing Act of 10 Oc­to­ber 1997⁶. Art­icle 30 para­graph 4 let­ter a num­ber 1 of that Act does not ap­ply.

3 The in­form­a­tion ob­tained un­der the pro­vi­sions of this Act shall not be trans­mit­ted abroad if:

a.

the coun­try of ori­gin is ex­per­i­en­cing a fail­ure of state struc­tures; or if

b.

the life or phys­ic­al well-be­ing of the per­sons con­cerned would be threatened as a res­ult.

4 The in­form­a­tion ob­tained un­der the pro­vi­sions of this Act shall be trans­mit­ted in the form of a re­port. If re­quired by the cir­cum­stances, the trans­mis­sion of in­form­a­tion to the coun­try of ori­gin may take place in stages or be sub­ject to con­di­tions. In de­fin­ing the con­di­tions, MROS shall take par­tic­u­lar ac­count of the need to re­spect the right to a fair tri­al in the coun­try of ori­gin.

5 Be­fore trans­mit­ting in­form­a­tion ob­tained un­der the pro­vi­sions of the present Act, the MROS shall con­sult with both the FOJ and the FD­FA.

1 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may in­struct the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Fin­ance (FDF) to take leg­al ac­tion be­fore the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court for the con­fis­ca­tion of frozen as­sets.

2 The Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court shall or­der the con­fis­ca­tion of as­sets:

a.

that are sub­ject to the power of dis­pos­al of a for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­son or a close as­so­ci­ate of that in­di­vidu­al, or of which those in­di­vidu­als are the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers;

b.

that are of il­li­cit ori­gin; and which

c.

have been frozen by or­der of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in an­ti­cip­a­tion of their con­fis­ca­tion, pur­su­ant to Art­icle 4.

3 No stat­ute of lim­it­a­tions in re­spect of crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion or pen­al­ties may be ap­plied.

4 Should mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance pro­ceed­ings in crim­in­al mat­ters re­sume, con­fis­ca­tion pro­ceed­ings shall be sus­pen­ded un­til such time as a fi­nal de­cision has been reached in those pro­ceed­ings.

1 There shall be a pre­sump­tion that as­sets are of il­li­cit ori­gin where the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are ful­filled:

a.

the wealth of the in­di­vidu­al who has the power of dis­pos­al over the as­sets or who is the be­ne­fi­cial own­er there­of in­creased in­or­din­ately, fa­cil­it­ated by the ex­er­cise of a pub­lic func­tion by a for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­son;

b.

the level of cor­rup­tion in the coun­try of ori­gin or sur­round­ing the for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­son in ques­tion was no­tori­ously high dur­ing his or her term of of­fice.

2 An in­crease shall be con­sidered in­or­din­ate where there is a sig­ni­fic­ant dis­pro­por­tion, in­con­sist­ent with or­din­ary ex­per­i­ence and the pre­vail­ing cir­cum­stances in the coun­try, between the in­come le­git­im­ately earned by the per­son with the power of dis­pos­al over the as­sets and the growth in that per­son’s wealth.

3 This pre­sump­tion shall be re­versed where it has been demon­strated with over­whelm­ing prob­ab­il­ity that the as­sets in ques­tion were ac­quired le­git­im­ately.

As­sets may not be con­fis­cated in the fol­low­ing cases:

a.

rights thereto are as­ser­ted by a Swiss au­thor­ity;

b.

a per­son who is not a close as­so­ci­ate of the for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­son in ques­tion has ac­quired, in good faith, rights in rem on those as­sets:

1.

in Switzer­land, or

2.

in an­oth­er coun­try, provided that those rights have been af­firmed in a ju­di­cial de­cision which can be re­cog­nised in Switzer­land.

The resti­tu­tion of as­sets is made in pur­suit of the fol­low­ing ob­ject­ives:

a.

to im­prove the liv­ing con­di­tions of the in­hab­it­ants of the coun­try of ori­gin; or

b.

to strengthen the rule of law in the coun­try of ori­gin and thus to con­trib­ute to the fight against im­pun­ity.

1 The resti­tu­tion of con­fis­cated as­sets is made through the fin­an­cing of pro­grammes of pub­lic in­terest.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude agree­ments gov­ern­ing the resti­tu­tion of as­sets.

3 Such agree­ments may cov­er, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the type of pro­grammes of pub­lic in­terest to be fun­ded by the re­turned as­sets;

b.

the way in which the re­turned as­sets are to be used;

c.

the parties to be in­cluded in the resti­tu­tion pro­cess;

d.

con­trol and mon­it­or­ing of the use made of the re­turned as­sets.

4 In the ab­sence of an agree­ment with the coun­try of ori­gin, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the pro­cess of resti­tu­tion. It may, in par­tic­u­lar, re­turn con­fis­cated as­sets via in­ter­na­tion­al or na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions, and provide for the su­per­vi­sion of the FD­FA.

5 To the ex­tent pos­sible, it shall in­clude non-gov­ern­ment­al or­gan­isa­tions in the resti­tu­tion pro­cess.

1 A lump-sum amount not ex­ceed­ing 2.5% of the value of the con­fis­cated as­sets may be de­duc­ted by the Con­fed­er­a­tion or to the can­tons to cov­er costs in­curred in pro­ceed­ings for the freez­ing, con­fis­ca­tion and resti­tu­tion of the as­sets, and in im­ple­ment­a­tion of sup­port meas­ures.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine on a case-by-case basis the amount to be de­duc­ted and the de­tails of any shar­ing ar­range­ments between the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons con­cerned, in con­sulta­tion with the lat­ter.

1 Nat­ur­al per­sons and leg­al en­tit­ies whose names have been in­cluded in the ap­pendix to an as­set freeze or­din­ance may sub­mit to the FD­FA a sub­stan­ti­ated re­quest for the re­mov­al of their names from the list.

2 The FD­FA shall rule on the re­quest.

1 In ac­cord­ance with the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice, de­cisions is­sued pur­su­ant to this Act shall be sub­ject to ap­peal.

2 The ap­peal does not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect. Art­icle 55 para­graph 2 of the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968⁷ does not ap­ply.

3 Freeze or­din­ances shall not be sub­ject to ap­peal.

1 Fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall trans­mit to the FD­FA and the FDF, on their own ini­ti­at­ive or on re­quest, the in­form­a­tion and per­son­al data ne­ces­sary for this Act to be en­forced.

2 The FD­FA shall trans­mit to the fed­er­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies and to fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible in mat­ters of mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance and crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion, at their re­quest, the in­form­a­tion and per­son­al data they re­quire to carry out their leg­al tasks.

3 The FOJ or the au­thor­ity en­trus­ted with the ex­e­cu­tion of a re­quest for mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance in crim­in­al mat­ters shall in­form the FD­FA where:

a.

a re­quest for in­ter­na­tion­al mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance in crim­in­al mat­ters con­cern­ing as­sets frozen in Switzer­land held by for­eign polit­ic­ally ex­posed per­sons or their close as­so­ci­ates will not be gran­ted ow­ing to a fail­ure of state struc­tures in the re­quest­ing coun­try;

b.

there is reas­on to be­lieve that no mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance pro­ceed­ings in crim­in­al mat­ters can be con­duc­ted based on the pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 2 let­ter a of the Mu­tu­al As­sist­ance Act of 20 March 1981⁸; or where

c.

it will be ne­ces­sary to re­ject an already pending re­quest for mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance based on the pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 2 let­ter a of the Mu­tu­al As­sist­ance Act.

The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies may pro­cess per­son­al data where the en­force­ment of this Act and of as­set freeze or­din­ances so re­quires. They may pro­cess sens­it­ive per­son­al data where this is in­dis­pens­able in the hand­ling of spe­cif­ic in­di­vidu­al cases.

The FD­FA, after con­sult­ing the oth­er de­part­ments con­cerned, shall sub­mit an­nu­ally, to the com­pet­ent par­lia­ment­ary com­mit­tees, a re­port on the meas­ures taken in ap­plic­a­tion of the present Act.

1 Any per­son who wil­fully and without au­thor­isa­tion from the FD­FA ex­ecutes pay­ments or trans­fers from frozen ac­counts or re­leases frozen as­sets shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 Where the act is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty shall be a fine not ex­ceed­ing CHF 250,000.

1 Any per­son who wil­fully vi­ol­ates the duty to re­port and to provide in­form­a­tion as set out in Art­icle 7 shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing CHF 250,000.

2 Where the act is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty shall be a fine not ex­ceed­ing CHF 100,000.

As­cer­tain­ing the crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity of per­sons may be dis­pensed with and in­stead the busi­ness op­er­a­tions may be ordered to pay the fine where the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are met:

a.

identi­fy­ing the per­sons who com­mit­ted the of­fences re­quires in­vest­ig­at­ive meas­ures that are dis­pro­por­tion­ate to the pen­alty in­curred; and

b.

a fine of a max­im­um of CHF 50,000 is un­der con­sid­er­a­tion for the vi­ol­a­tions of the crim­in­al pro­vi­sions of this Act.

1 The Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974 on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law⁹ ap­plies to vi­ol­a­tions of this Act. The FDF shall be the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for pro­sec­u­tion and judg­ment.

2 Where a court judg­ment has been re­ques­ted, or where the FDF con­siders that the re­quis­ite con­di­tions for a cus­todi­al sen­tence or oth­er cus­todi­al meas­ures are sat­is­fied, the fed­er­al courts have jur­is­dic­tion. In such cases, the FDF shall refer the case file to the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land for pro­ceed­ings be­fore the Fed­er­al Crim­in­al Court. This re­fer­ral shall con­sti­tute the form­al bring­ing of charges. Art­icles 73 to 82 of the Fed­er­al Act on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

1 Where a crim­in­al case is sub­ject to the jur­is­dic­tion of the FDF and the jur­is­dic­tion of the fed­er­al or can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies, the FDF may or­der that the pro­ceed­ings be con­sol­id­ated un­der the pro­sec­ut­ing au­thor­ity already hand­ling the case, provided that the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are met:

a.

there is a close fac­tu­al con­nec­tion;

b.

the case is not yet pending be­fore the com­pet­ent court; and

c.

con­sol­id­a­tion will not un­reas­on­ably delay the pro­ceed­ings.

2 The Ap­peals Cham­ber of the Fed­er­al Crim­in­al Court shall de­cide on any dis­putes between the FDF and the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al or the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

1 The Fed­er­al Act of 1 Oc­to­ber 2010¹⁰ on the Resti­tu­tion of Il­li­cit As­sets is re­pealed.

2 The fed­er­al acts lis­ted be­low shall be amended as fol­lows:

…¹¹

1 As­sets already frozen when this Act enters in­to force un­der an or­der by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil based on Art­icle 2 of the Fed­er­al Act of 1 Oc­to­ber 2010¹² on the Resti­tu­tion of Il­li­cit As­sets (RI­AA) or on Art­icle 184 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion shall re­main frozen. Such as­set freezes shall be con­sidered a freeze ordered pur­su­ant to Art­icle 4.

2 This Act ap­plies to leg­al ac­tions for the con­fis­ca­tion of as­sets brought be­fore the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court un­der the pro­vi­sions of the RI­AA and which are still pending when the present Act enters in­to force.

1 This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Ju­ly 2016¹³