Zurich High Court: Usury landlady does not have to go to prison
Released
Zurich High CourtUsury landlady doesn’t have to go to jail
A 58-year-old has been convicted of commercial usury by the Supreme Court. She has rented rooms to asylum seekers at inflated prices.
That’s what it’s about
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A 58-year-old Chinese woman is accused of usury.
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The woman is said to have demanded exorbitant rent for rooms given to asylum seekers.
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Her lawyer denied an emergency and demanded an acquittal.
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The Supreme Court sentenced her to a conditional term of imprisonment of 24 months.
The now 58-year-old Chinese sublet three apartments in Zurich and Spreitbach AG between 2010 and 2017 at grossly inflated rents, primarily to asylum seekers and recipients of social welfare. According to the indictment, she made an illegal profit of CHF 110,000. She rented a 165 square meter five-room apartment on Badenerstrasse in Altstetten for CHF 3,850. Then she had partition walls installed in the apartment so that eleven lockable rooms were created. She rented it out for CHF 900 a month, with the eleven tenants having to share a bathroom, toilet and kitchen.
She also rented out two similar condominiums in Im Isengrind in Affoltern and in Spreitenbach – which belong to her and her now separated husband – for exorbitant rents. In addition to structural defects, the apartments were also in poor hygienic condition. The indictment mentions mold, cockroaches and rats.
Chinese will be acquitted
At the trial on Thursday before the High Court, the woman asked for an acquittal: “I’m innocent.” They deny the usury allegations that it was local rent. In April 2021, the Zurich District Court sentenced them to 33 months in prison, of which they are to serve eleven months. Her defense attorney asked for an acquittal. Nobody was obliged to live there. “None of the tenants was in an emergency or predicament.” You have been responsible for the cleanliness of the local. The lawyer also demands the return of the confiscated money in the amount of 88,000 francs.
The woman studied mechanical engineering in China and worked there as an engineer in a machine factory. In 2001 she came to Switzerland, where she first worked in an office. After a long period of unemployment, she began offering massages on Badenerstrasse in 2010 and later rented the apartment primarily to asylum seekers from Eritrea. “I read about this business model in the newspaper,” she said. The case was discovered when the Zurich city police received an anonymous letter in November 2015. It spoke of people illegally present in the property on Badenerstrasse and of catastrophic hygienic conditions.
88,000 francs are confiscated
The High Court reduced the sentence and sentenced the woman to a suspended prison sentence of 24 months. So you don’t have to go to jail, as the lower court decided. In addition, the 88,000 francs that could be secured in two bank accounts will be confiscated to cover the court and investigation costs. “The majority of tenants would not have had a chance to find an apartment on the housing market,” said the presiding judge. The tenants came from the weakest social environment. It was about commercial usury, a predicament was exploited. “You acted reprehensibly,” said the judge.
The case has parallels to the so-called Gammelhäuser in District 4. The Küsnacht owner has rented three properties at exorbitant rents to social welfare recipients and the marginalized. In July 2020, the man who confessed was sentenced to a conditional prison sentence of 24 months by the Zurich District Court in an abbreviated procedure.
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