Bhutto's boondoggles - a chapter closed

Swiss investigation against Bhutto for alleged money laundering closed, lawyer says
AP in IHT December 28, 2007

GENEVA: A Swiss investigation against the late Benazir Bhutto for alleged money laundering was declared closed, her lawyer said Friday.

A parallel investigation against her husband continues, however, said Alec Reymond, Bhutto's lawyer in Geneva., there is allegedly a third un-named suspect.

A Geneva magistrate convicted Bhutto and her husband in absentia of money laundering in July 2003 under a Swiss law that empowers high-level investigators to impose penalties without a court hearing.

They received six-month suspended sentences and were ordered to pay US$11 million (€9.1 million) to the Pakistani government, but the conviction was automatically thrown out when the pair contested it. They were then charged by another Swiss magistrate, Vincent Fournier, in July 2004 and the case was reopened.

Swiss authorities said in 1998 they found about 20 million Swiss francs (then US$13.8 million) in Swiss accounts belonging to Bhutto and her family. The accounts were frozen at the request of Pakistan.

Bhutto said she has no connection with the accounts.

"Miss Bhutto has always said that this was not her money. The accounts were not in her name," Reymond told The Associated Press.

Swiss and Pakistani investigators allege much of the money came from Societe Generale de Surveillance, or SGS, one of the world's largest customs inspection companies, in exchange for business with the Pakistani government when Bhutto was in power. SGS has consistently denied the claims.

UPDATE :

The case against former prime minister and Chairperson of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari in the Swiss court was set for September 28th 2007 has been adjourned for the time being on the request of the government of Pakistan.