Businessman to appeal Swiss fraud conviction

The family of Dublin businessman Paul Murphy said yesterday he would appeal after a Swiss court convicted him of laundering £4.5 million sterling (€7.13 million) of drugs money for Colombian cocaine barons and sentenced him to six years in jail.

Murphy (40), from Southern Cross, Bray, Co Wicklow, denied accusations of money-laundering and drugs trafficking during a trial which lasted nearly three weeks in the Swiss city of Lugano.

Judge Agnese BalestraBianchi concluded in her verdict on Thursday that there was "no doubt" Murphy and co-defendants Andrew Winters (47), from Surrey, England, and Swiss businessman Eduardo Morandi were part of a "complex moneylaundering system" operating using 240 accounts in 14 banks in the US, UK, Italy and Switzerland.

The judge accepted prosecutor Maria Galliani's case the three had laundered drugs money, but threw out the more serious charge of drugs trafficking which the defendant firmly denied.

Speaking through relatives, who travelled from their home in England to be at the trial, Murphy, who is detained at Lugano's La Stampa prison, protested his innocence and said he would clear his name. Murphy's father, Mr Norman Murphy, described the court's verdict as a "miscarriage of justice".

Mr Murphy said his son wanted to clear his name by contacting clients who could vouch for him. He complained that defence lawyers had been unable to use them as witnesses because they had to be approved by the prosecution.

"I believe Paul is totally innocent. He will do all he can to clear his name," Mr Murphy said.

Ms Galliani conceded that she had based her case on "indications" rather than concrete evidence. But the court accepted her case that these "indications" presented "an overall picture" of "a complex money-laundering system".

Prosecutors said Winters worked as a courier, bringing suitcases of banknotes from the US to Switzerland, where Murphy deposited the cash in Swiss bank accounts before transferring them to accounts in the UK, US, Colombia, Italy, Tunisia and Jordan.

Winter and Murphy did not deny handling the transactions but insisted these were legitimate and carried out for legitimate clients.

Winters was sentenced to 5-1/2 years' jail. Both men have been in Swiss custody since their arrest in December 1998. The court also convicted their Swiss co-defendant of money-laundering and sentenced him to 2-1/2 years' jail. Murphy and Winters were also ordered to pay a fine of £120,000 sterling each and will be banned from Switzerland for 15 years on their release. Both have already served two years and two months in remand.

Switzerland has recently cracked down on money-laundering with tough legislation brought into force in 1998. The Lugano trial has been one of the biggest cases to reach the courts - many similar cases falter on lack of evidence because prosecutors rely on legal assistance from other countries.