Peter Friederich, the former Swiss ambassador to Luxembourg, has been found guilty of money laundering and embezzlement and sentenced to thr...

Peter Friederich, the former Swiss ambassador to Luxembourg, has been found guilty of money laundering and embezzlement and sentenced to three and half years in jail. Mr Friederich, according to the court, had accepted SFr2.4 million ($1.92 million) from Spanish-Colombian drug dealers in 2001 while he was ambassador to Luxembourg. He deposited the money in various bank accounts and received SFr134,000 as a reward, the court said. As a diplomat, Mr Friederich invested large sums of money in the stock market on behalf of friends and associates, promising them a high return on their investments. But the former ambassador’s investment efforts took a turn for the worst in 2000 when stock markets began to fall. According to the court, Mr Friederich lost SFr5 million as a result of the downturn in world equity markets. Mr Friederich was arrested in July 2002 after SFr2.37 million in cash deposits turned up in his private account in Luxembourg.