Five court judgments in favor of Quantum Global Group

The four judgments by Zug Cantonal Court and one judgment by Zurich District Court all stem from the investigations by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration into the Quantum Global Group and Jean-Claude Bastos.

Based on these investigations, the tax authorities in Canton Ticino (representing the Swiss Confederation, Canton Ticino and the communes of Lugano, Melano and Paradiso) sequestrated the accounts of Quantum Global Group in May 2018 on the basis of “Steuerarresten” (tax sequestrations) intended to secure taxes and tax penalty payments allegedly owed by Jean-Claude Bastos.

The sequestrated assets belong to Quantum Global Group

The hearings before Zug Cantonal Court centered on the claim by the Ticino tax authorities that the assets of the Quantum Global Companies actually belonged to Jean-Claude Bastos. The companies would, therefore, be liable for the debts of the beneficial owner (Jean-Claude Bastos).

In the four judgments delivered on December 7, 2018, Zug Cantonal Court states that there is no evidence that Bastos was improperly claiming that these companies are autonomous. Consequently, the assets of the Quantum Global companies cannot be seized.

Zug Cantonal Court also states that Jean-Claude Bastos cannot be accused of ignoring the “legal autonomy” of Quantum Global Group. The justification for the tax sequestration – that there were reasons to suspect Jean-Claude Bastos had evaded taxes with the help of Quantum Global Group – was rejected by Zug Cantonal Court as “neither substantiated nor evidenced”. 

Tax authorities acted illegitimately and thus infringed fundamental rights

The judgment delivered by Zurich District Court on December 11, 2018 shows that the tax authorities actually acted “illegitimately”, thus infringing fundamental rights.

After the first accounts of the Quantum Global companies were sequestrated in mid-May 2018, the tax authorities missed a deadline which meant that the sequestration would have been lifted anyway. However, the tax authorities summarily sequestrated the same accounts again with the same justification as four months earlier.

Zurich District Court deemed this behavior by the tax authorities as “illegitimate”. The court also states definitively that neither “negative press reports” “nor concerns” on the part of the tax authorities – which their own statements suggest they have – “are sufficient to justify its illegitimate actions”.

The Quantum Global Group is pleased to note that several courts have now clearly rejected the unlawful sequestration of its third-party assets by the tax authorities. The Swiss judgments follow the successful outcomes Quantum Global achieved in English courts.

The tax authorities’ illegitimate actions have significantly reduced Quantum Global Group’s capacity to pay, and done enormous damage to its employees and creditors.

Swiss taxpayers have also suffered. They have had to pay more than CHF 134,500 so far in court costs and compensation to the winning party – Quantum Global Group.