Tracking Switzerland’s Return of Illicit Assets
This page aims to provide an overview of assets relating to corruption and returned, or scheduled for return, by Switzerland and to be a tool for civil society to further engage with these and other potential cases of cross-border corruption and asset recovery.
Information for this page was collected through research into publicly available information on Switzerland’s return of illicit financial assets between January 2010 and March 2022. The dataset was sent to and reviewed by the Section for Asset Recovery of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in March 2022.
However, it should be noted that it is not exhaustive and additional cases may exist. The total returned, or scheduled for return, assets for the period in question amount to USD 1.47 billion.
Angola
- USD 43 million in frozen assets were announced for return on December 17, 2012.
- More information here.
Brazil
- USD 19.4 million was announced for return on April 15, 2014.
- As part of the Petrobras scandal, Brazilian authorities conducted criminal proceedings (Operation Anaconda) in Rio and petitioned Switzerland for the restitution of the confiscated assets.
- More information here.
Brazil
- USD 120 million was announced for return on March 18, 2015.
- Related to the Petrobras scandal, an agreement with two account holders arranged for the release of these assets for return to their rightful owners.
- More information here.
Brazil
- USD 70 million was announced for return on March 17, 2016.
- As part of the Petrobras scandal, the beneficial owners of these Swiss accounts were senior executives of Petrobras and of its suppliers, financial intermediaries, Brazilian politicians, and other companies.
- More information here.
Brazil
- CHF 9 million returned at the end of March 2019.
- This return is another installment of the Petrobras – Odebrecht related investigations.
- More information here.
Egypt
- USD 34 million was returned to Egypt in December 2017.
- The returned funds originally belonged to businessman, Ahmed Ezz.
- More information here.
Equatorial Guinea
- In 2019, USD 22.4 million was collected for return in the form of funding for social programs.
- The returned funds were generated from the seizure and auctioning off of supercars owned by Teodorin Nguema Obiang, son of Equatorial Guinea’s leader, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
- More information here.
Italy
- CHF 30 million was announced for return in November of 2017 after investigations into the Riva Family.
- More information here.
Italy
- CHF 10 million was announced for return in December of 2017 from investigations into the Parmalat food group.
- More information here.
Kazakhstan
- USD 48 million was agreed for return in 2012.
- The parties agreed for the returned funds to be used to finance World Bank development projects in Kazakhstan.
- More information here.
Nigeria
- USD 322.5 million was returned on April 12, 2017, as a settlement agreement between the Nigerian Government and the Abacha family.
- A tripartite agreement for the return was signed by Nigeria, Switzerland, and the World Bank.
- More information here.
Peru
- USD 16.3 million was agreed for repatriation on December 16, 2020.
- Illicit assets originated from corruption in Peru.
- More information here.
Taiwan
- USD 20.5 million was returned in 2010, following the conviction of Chen Shui-bian, the former president of Taiwan.
- More information here.
Taiwan
- USD 6,429,018 was returned to the Supreme Prosecutors Office of Taiwan on September 4, 2015.
- The returned funds are the illegal proceeds of corruption obtained by former President Chen Shui-Bian during the Second Financial Reform Case.
- More information here.
Taiwan
- USD 266 million was announced for return to Taiwan in 2019.
- These funds were part of illicit kickbacks on the sale of warships to Taiwan in 1991.
- More information here.
Tunisia
- CHF 250,000 was repatriated in 2016.
- The returned funds are believed to have related to a nephew of former Tunisian president Ben Ali.
- More information here.
Tunisia
- USD 3.91 million was returned in 2017.
- Funds were returned with the agreement of the account beneficiary, believed to be a close relative of former Tunisian president Ben Ali.
- More information here.
Turkmenistan
- USD 1.3 million was announced for return on January 15, 2020.
- It was agreed that the returned funds were to be channeled into a health project of the UN Development Programme.
- More information here.
United States
- USD 200 million was announced for return on December 28, 2020.
- Returned assets were for the victims of a Swiss account owner related to Allen Stanford’s pyramid scheme.
- More information here.
Uzbekistan
- USD 131 million was agreed for restitution in September 2020, then in February 2022, further agreements for the return were established.
- More information here.
Russia
- CHF 53 million was returned to Aeroflot, a defrauded airline on August 27, 2010.
- More information here.
South American Football Confederation
- CHF 16.1 million was returned in December of 2019, after criminal procedures against former CONMEBOL president Nicolas Leoz and former secretary general of CONMEBOL, Eduardo Deluca.
- More information here.
South American Football Confederation
- CHF 1.8 million was returned in September of 2020, after criminal proceedings against former secretary general of CONMEBOL, Eduardo Deluca.
- More information here.
South American Football Confederation
- Another CHF 18.7 million was ordered for return in September of 2020.
- The criminal proceedings were conducted against persons unknown.
- More information here.