--- Begin Message --- Greetings from Swiss Hell!
Yesterday I spoke to Susan Brouillette, aide to US Senator Richard Lugar, at his office in Indianapolis, Indiana. She said the US Embassy in Bern told her my situation is "a legal matter" that the embassy can do very little about. She said that everyone I know should write to the Swiss Ambassador to the USA complaining about my treatment, i.e., my being tortured, imprisoned without being allowed to see anyone including US Embassy officials, having my bank accounts plundered, my US passport seized, etc. She said this will hopefully put some pressure on the Swiss to return my passport and private money to me. She also said she will try to get the consular section to put out a notice in which Americans planning on travelling to Switzerland or transfering/opening businesses here are warned of the inherent dangers of what might happen to them - having their passports and bank accounts seized, not being allowed to leave the country for a substantial period of time, etc.
Here is the contact information of the Swiss ambassador to the USA:
Mr. Christian Blickenstorfer
Swiss Ambassador to the United States
Swiss Embassy
2900 Cathedral Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: 202-387-2564
Tel.: 202-745-7900
E-mail address: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.eda.admin.ch/washington_emb/e/home.html
I would appreciate it if you could write to Mr Blickenstorfer and/or to Mr. Reynolds, the US Ambassador to Switzerland - provided, of course, that your letter to Mr. Blickenstorfer doesn't cause me more trouble, considering I'm still very firmly lodged in the Belly of the Beast. If you have a Swiss embassy near you, you should visit them if possible to complain in person, which is obviously far more effective. Ask to see the ambassador, himself. The ambassador would never be a woman, as women are considered a little lower than dogs here, and only got the right to vote throughout the country in 1991.
It is a crime in Switzerland to say anything bad about the country or its citizens, regardless of whether or not it's true. It's called "Verleumdung", which means "criminal libel" or "criminal slander". Yes, this is a Nazi country - pretending to be a neutral country. That's why Hitler never invaded Switzerland - they were his secret allies, laundering his money, manufacturing his weapons and providing rest and relaxation to his soldiers.
Here's the contact information for the U.S. Embassy here in Bern:
The Honorable Mercer Reynolds
U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland
Jubil�umstr. 93
Post Office Box
3001 Bern
Switzerland
Fax: +41-31-357-7344
Mr. Cassius C. Johnson
U.S. Consul-General
Jubil�umstr. 93
Post Office Box
3001 Bern
Switzerland
Mr. Scott D. Boswell
U.S. Consul
Jubil�umstr. 93
Post Office Box
3001 Bern
Switzerland
You should only contact the ambassador, Mercer Reynolds.
Following this message, below, is my "official" basic version of what's happened to me here.
Hopefully,
MICHAEL
Basic Facts Pertaining To The Swiss Government's Case Against Michael Williams
Urs Mumenthaler is a multimillionaire in his late thirties. After knowing Mumenthaler for several years, he pleaded with me to teach him guitar, and I reluctantly agreed to do so, although he has almost no natural talent or coordination.
After failing to succeed in the music business on his own talent, Mumenthaler decided to ride to fame by becoming my "producer." He came to me offering to finance the recording of several solo CDs containing my original music. All of my expenses were to be paid, including but not limited to recording studios, additional musicians, MIDI experts, travel expenses to studios, etc.
Eventually, Mumenthaler told me that he needed to have a contract to account for the money for the purpose of saving Swiss taxes. Mumenthaler entered into a contract with Eclipse Music Productions, a division of University of Creative Arts, Inc., an American corporation. The contract did not mention my name at all, as it rightfully should not. I am not an officer of this corporation and do not own any stock in it. In the contract, he agreed that in the event he had any complaints, he would resolve them in the Dade County, Florida court system.
The corporation provided me with power-of-attorney to open and operate bank accounts in America and Europe, so that I could pay all of the expenses as they came in, since Mumenthaler did not perform any other function that a producer would perform other than wire money from his bank account. He refused to assist in any way other than taking a couple of minutes to wire transfer funds to pay for expenses. In other words, he was not a real producer in the sense of providing any business expertise. He was more like a financier, only paying the recording expenses, but he was determined to make it big as a producer.
Despite my being in poor health, I managed to record 207 songs during our association of around two-and-a-half years. Each time I recorded a song, I provided Mumenthaler with a master CD.
In March of this year, Armin Risi, whom I had also known for some years, contacted me. He stated that for my birthday present (my birthday is 25 March), he wanted to sponsor a birthday concert for me at a small concert hall in Zurich. He would pay for all of the expenses, and I would receive all of the money raised from ticket sales and CD sales. I reluctantly agreed to perform, with an amateur back-up band consisting of Mumenthaler and two other amateur musicians.
The concert took place in Zurich on 24 March 2001, the day before my birthday, and was a great success. As it turned out, Risi had put on the concert as a venue to sell books he had written and published. He failed to pay me under the terms he had agreed to, deducting all of the expenses
from the ticket and CD sales and even deducting a fat fee for himself.
The following day, 25 March 2001, my birthday, my phone rang off the hook and I received numerous e-mail messages from people who had come to my concert. They were very excited and wanted to know when I would be having another concert, hopefully a much bigger one. They told me that they would come and would bring many people with them. They raved about my concert.
I invited an Austrian woman named Gabi Steiner (who uses the professional name "Yamuna") to perform at my concert, to help her career. She sings songs that I've written, co-written, or arranged for her. Risi introduced her to me
When Risi discovered how excited everyone was about my concert and that they wanted me to have a much bigger concert in Zurich, he became extremely jealous and angry. He told me I could never have a bigger concert; that I couldn't sell enough tickets, "no one would come" and other negative statements.
Mumenthaler was quite excited about the positive reaction to my concert and had me contact a concert promoter in Zurich named Andrej Voina to see if he would be interested in promoting a major concert for me in Zurich. Voina agreed to promote my concert and set up a meeting with Mumenthaler and me in Zurich.
When I informed Risi of the meeting Mumenthaler and I were to attend in Zurich the next day, he suddenly changed his tone and said he wanted to help. He asked me if he could accompany Mumenthaler and me to the meeting to "put in a good word" for me. I told him that would be fine. He said he would speak to Mumenthaler on the telephone to arrange a meeting place for all of us.
Mumenthaler and Risi spoke on the telephone for well over an hour. They clearly were not only discussing a meeting place. Immediately after their conversation, around midnight, Mumenthaler sent me an e-mail telling me he was not going to accompany me to the meeting, nor was he going to finance the manufacture of my "Ghostwriter" CD, which had been recently finished and polished for release, and he was leaving "immediately" on a holiday with his life partner, Rainer Lauer.
At the same time Mumenthaler sent me this e-mail, Risi sent me a very negative e-mail, telling me he wasn't going to attend the meeting, either, and that I was never going to get another cent out of Mumenthaler.
As it turned out, Risi had turned Mumenthaler against me with a myriad of lies. He asked Mumenthaler if Lauer knew he'd been financing my recording projects, and when Mumenthaler said he did not, he had urged Mumenthaler to go on a holiday with Lauer and tell him everything. Mumenthaler did exactly as Risi told him to do.
Just at the time when we were supposed to be preparing for the manufacture of the "Ghostwriter" CD and a major concert in Zurich, with my career finally taking flight after so many years, Mumenthaler and Risi both disappeared for several weeks.
Meanwhile, Petra Mueller contacted me and told me she was certain that with my name and Yamuna's name, she could easily sell at least 1,500 tickets if we had a concert in Austria. She asked me to arrange to "import" several of America's greatest pop/rock musicians, whom I'd been working with on the "Ghostwriter" CD. They all agreed, provided they were paid their fee and all transportation costs, hotels, etc.
When Risi resurfaced, he was infuriated to hear that we were going ahead with a concert, despite his assurances that it would be impossible. He did everything in his power to discourage all of us, especially Mueller and Steiner.
Risi then began relaying threatening messages from Mumenthaler to me. Mumenthaler's life partner, Lauer, had exploded with anger and jealousy when he was told about how Mumenthaler had been financing my recording projects, saying, "you never gave me so much money!"
Eventually Mumenthaler and Lauer began calling me on the telephone and threatening me with death, but I had no idea why. They were even so daring as to leave death threats and other similar messages on my telephone answering machine. Mumenthaler feels quite secure that with his countless millions, thinking the Swiss police would never dare to arrest him, no matter what he does.
Around 2 May 2001, Mumenthaler called me and told me that he was coming over with Lauer and Risi around 3:00 PM, whether I liked it or not, and I was going to have to sign a contract agreeing to void the existing contract with Eclipse, and agreeing to pay back every cent of his loan "within 30 days" -- as if I had the money. I told him I didn't want them to come over, but he refused to listen.
Terrified that they might come to my home armed with weapons, I tried to contact all of the lawyers I knew in the area to get someone to come over as a witness. I couldn't reach anyone since it was lunch hour, so I looked in the telephone book and finally reached Joerg Zumstein, who agreed to cancel some other appointments and come over to act as a witness.
Even in Mr. Zumstein's presence, Mumenthaler, Risi and Lauer threatened me to force me to sign the short "contract" which Risi had composed. Lauer continuously said to Mumenthaler, "Let's just throw Williams in prison so we can go home. I'm getting tired of this."
Mr. Zumstein reminded Mumenthaler that he had signed a contract with Eclipse, and there was nothing he could do to me. After around three hours of vicious arguing, the trio stormed out, and I spoke privately with Mr. Zumstein. He assured me there was nothing at all that Mumenthaler could do to me, and he said repeatedly: "I guarantee you, the Swiss police will never arrest you over this."
Between then, around 2 May and around 16 October, Mr. Zumstein repeatedly assured me that I would never be arrested, and that I had nothing to worry about, in meeting in his office, on the telephone, in e-mails and letters. Around 16 October, he even sent me an e-mail telling me he was certain that all of my problems had finally disappeared.
At around 6:30 AM on 18 October 2001, several police officers, members of the "Cantonal Police of Bern" burst into my home in the Bern area in a Gestapo-like raid and tore my apartment to pieces, seizing numerous items. They took my computer, printer, 53 CD-ROMs containing my life's work: music; CD-ROMs containing around 20 years or personal and legal correspondence, and many other items which had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Mumenthaler's claim, which is that I "defrauded" him of his money, used it for my "personal use" and failed to record any music at all. They also took several items that they failed to note on the seizure inventory list they provided to me, including but not limited to a 135 megabyte SyQuest external hard disk drive and some precious �Apache Tear Drop" stones.
The police were not interested in the contract that Mumenthaler had signed. They were not interested in any of the 207 master CDs I had recorded. They were not interested in any evidence that would prove my innocence. It was a case of a super-rich local Swiss native son against a hated "Auslander" (foreigner). Here was their opportunity to cut an American down to size. They seized many more items which were of absolutely no value to their case against me, and for which there was only one intent: to hurt me.
I was told that I was being taken to the police station of the Cantonal Police of Bern for questioning, and that I would most likely be released within a few hours. If they did not finish their questioning that day, I would have to spend the night in prison, and continue the questioning the following day, but I would surely not spend more than one night in prison, if at all. I was told to bring a toothbrush "just in case" I had to spend that single night in prison.
Ms. Luthi and Mr. Bigler, officers of the Cantonal Police of Bern, took me to an office where they grilled me for several hours in a combination of High German (which I barely understand) and the Bernese Swiss-German dialect, which I don't understand at all. They told me that if I didn't "cooperate" by "trying" to answer their many questions in a language they knew I didn't understand, I would stay in prison, but if I answered their questions, I'd go home the same day or the next day. Under such tremendous pressure, terrorized, I tried my best to answer their questions, which I never understood fully, in a language I often have difficulty ordering a sandwich in.
Finally as it approached 3:00 PM, I was told that if I hurried up and answered their remaining questions in German, I would be rushed to Judge Wenger, the investigation judge, who would then free me the same day, and I would not be sent to prison at all.
In their interrogation, the two police officers informed me that three individuals had ganged up on me, accusing me of "fraud". The first was Urs Mumenthaler, who had falsely informed them that I (not the American corporation, according to him) had "personally" received his money, had
used it "for personal items" and "had done no recording at all".
The second individual was Petra Mueller, who falsely stated that I had "cheated" her out of the money she had wired me personally (not the corporation, according to her), by "overcharging" her. She said this despite my having countless e-mails in which she raved about what a wonderful job I'd done for "Yamuna", and thanking me over and over.
The third individual was Armin Risi, who had spun quite a few tales, including one claiming that he'd sent me SFr. 1,950 (about US $1,100) to do work on his web site. In actuality, he'd sent me that amount for my birthday present some years ago, thinking my birthday was in 1950. (It's actually 1951). I even have it in writing that this amount was for my birthday present, and he timed it to arrive on my birthday, or as close to it as possible.
He also made the outrageous claim that he'd "personally financed" my family's stay at a "health farm situated directly on the Lake of Lugano". He did no such thing. In fact, he introduced me to another of his Hare Krishna cult friends, architect Fritz Gysin, who invited my family to stay whenever we liked in a tiny little room connected to the palace he lives in, which is about a 45-minute drive to the Lake of Lugano. It is by no means a "health farm". When I told the police he had not "personally financed" it; that it had cost him virtually nothing at all, Office Luthi responded "He organized it. That's the same thing."
To make a very long, very sad story exceedingly short, my "single night" in prison ended up being 34 days and nights! Mr. Zumstein, the lawyer who had consistently assured me I would "never" go to prison over this matter, upon learning that I was imprisoned, sent me a fax, which was delivered to me in my tiny prison cell, telling me he had no time to represent me and was sending another attorney that he knew, Dr. Dino DeGiorgi, in his place. He wrote very highly of Dr. DeGiorgi. He said I would be subjected to numerous interviews by the police and investigative judge, and that it was important that an excellent attorney was present at these interviews.
Dr. DeGiorgi did not attend a single interview. Instead, he sent his apprentice, Ms. Michel, who is not even a lawyer. On the most important occasion, no one at all was there to represent me, and the police informed me that Dr. DeGiorgi had been notified and had declined to attend. During the many interviews I had with the police, Ms. Michel only uttered a single sentence. This was when the police claimed I said something different than what I had said. The police did not use a tape recorder. Officer Luthi only typed whatever she wanted to into her computer as I answered her questions and those of her colleague's, Officer Hans-Peter Bigler. So, I was, for all practical purposes, not properly represented at the extremely important police interviews, and at the first one, which lasted hours, I was forced to communicate in a language I understand so little of that I often get the wrong sandwich when I order it in a restaurant. I cannot understand complicated German, and I cannot understand the Swiss-German dialect at all. Eventually, a translator was present, but she was absolutely unqualified for the job, frequently resorted to the use of a German-English dictionary, and even more frequently made horrible mistakes which made the questions at times impossible to understand. When I did not respond immediately due to not understanding the question, Officer Luthi typed into her computer how long I had taken to answer the question, adding that I was being "uncooperative".
I was kept in solitary confinement for 34 days, "living" on mostly stale bread and rusty water. The bread and other inedible "food" was thrown through a tiny hole in the iron door of my cell at 5:00 AM, 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM with the sarcastic greeting "en guete," which is Swiss-German
dialect for "bon appetit."
Deprived of a proper diet, any medical care, or the medicine and special diet I need, refused any visits or telephone calls, I nearly died several times of high blood pressure. I also suffer from several phobias, including severe claustrophobia. The judges, police and prison authorities knew I suffered from extremely treatment-resistant high blood pressure, acute claustrophobia and many other medical problems, but they apparently hoped that I would perish in my prison cell so their "democratic" country, which prides itself on having no death penalty, could in fact, execute me by depriving me of medical care and by leaving me in an environment calculated to cause my death or drive me into insanity.
After letting me rot in the prison cell for weeks, Dr. DeGiorgi finally came to me, stating that he'd spoken to the judge. The judge had agreed to release me, pending a trial, if I agreed to prepare letters on my seized computer addressed to two banks in Denmark where I had transferred corporate funds to for use in a Danish music production, in which I would instruct the banks to wire transfer most of the contents of two corporate accounts to the corporate account located in Bern, Switzerland. If I did not agree to prepare and sign the letters, I would be held in prison indefinitely, as I saw happening to other prisoners on those occasions when we were taken to the rooftop as early as 5:00 AM in the snow without winter coats to "exercise" for a few minutes in darkness and freezing temperatures.
Driven to the extremes of endurance, I agreed to prepare and sign the letters to the two Danish banks pertaining to the two corporate accounts maintained at those two banks. At that point, I would have signed anything to escape the hellish conditions in which I'd been placed. I was completely broken. I was near death.
When the police arrived, they had previously prepared letters, not only to the two banks concerning the corporate accounts, but also to several other banks outside the country having my personal accounts. This was not what I had agreed to do, but the police forced me to sign all of the letters, threatening to keep me in prison for a very long time if I refused. After being transferred, the funds were blocked in the Swiss accounts by the judge.
I was not released immediately, as Dr. DeGiorgi promised me I would be. Instead, I remained in custody about two more weeks, when I was finally released, penniless, and with my American and Swiss passports seized, along with my Swiss identity card, all held by the judge, reducing me to a prisoner of Switzerland, further punished by inability to earn a living, conduct any business, visit my doctors, and friends, destroyed physical health and endless nightmares.
I wrote Dr. DeGiorgi every single day, asking what was going on, asking him why I was still in prison, telling him I regretted signing the letters and felt I'd been extorted out of everything I owned. Finally, I wrote him that I wished to cancel the bank wires I'd ordered under duress. I demanded he visit me. I received no answer. My wife and others called him, saying I wished to see him. Still he did not visit or answer my letters.
Around 7:00 A.M. on 14 November 2001, I received a letter from Dr. DeGiorgi dated 9 November 2001. It was the only letter he ever wrote to me in the entire time I was in prison, and it was withheld by the authorities until the last possible minute before being delivered to me. In the one-paragraph letter, he wrote that Judge Wenger would release me on 14 November 2001 after a meeting with the judge. I later learned that Dr. DeGiorgi had called my wife on 13 November to tell her I'd be released on 14 November 2001.
On 14 November 2001, after a hearing before Judge Wenger, I was told I would not be released that day as planned. I'd be released in one more week. He also insisted that I agree to sign yet another letter, instructing Barclays Bank to transfer all of the money from my private British accounts to my personal account at the Berner Kantonalbank in Bern, (where it, too, was blocked). One more week in that prison was like ten years.
Around 15 November 2001, the same two police officers came to the prison to have me sign the letter to Barclays Bank which I was also not allowed to read and of which I did not receive a copy.
At about 3:00 AM on 21 November, I was lying on my back on the dirty cement floor of my prison cell, bleeding from my eyes, nose and gums, suffering from an excruciating migraine headache, loud ringing in my ears, a totally stiff neck, a flushed red face, severe tinnitus, and other obvious symptoms of emergency-room-level high blood pressure. I was taken before Judge Wenger again in this condition for yet another lengthy interrogation. After the interrogation, I was returned to the prison, then released. I had come close to dying in prison and was released at the last possible minute. Thank God!
It has now been established that Mumenthaler trespassed into my home, broke into my computer and stole all of my files, including around 20 years of private, business and legal correspondence, etc. He has been working feverishly to cause me even more legal problems here, as he calls and/or e-mails everyone I know, whose names and contact information he has obtained from the files he stole from me. He is asking everyone he contacts to file false charges against me, and is telling them the most absurd lies in order to solicit their false charges. He told one British friend of mine, Roger Bunn, for example, that I was in prison on charges of "Defamation of Character," that I had been in prison in the USA on charges of "Defamation of Character," that I had defamed my friend's character, and that he should file charges of "Defamation of Character" against me. Mr. Bunn refused and reported Mumenthaler's criminal activity to Dr. DeGiorgi. At this time, at least four individuals have reported Mumenthaler's criminal activity to Dr. DeGiorgi, who refused to file charges against Mumenthaler and did nothing other than write letters to Mumenthaler's lawyer politely asking his client to refrain from his activities.
On 12 December 2001, I entered Dr. DeGiorgi's office for the 10:30 AM appointment I had waited nearly a month for. A lady led me to a conference room where his assistant, Ms. Michel (an apprentice) was sitting. She said nothing at all. She was obviously there as a witness. The lady then said she would call Dr. DeGiorgi. He came storming in, seething with anger, a minute later. In a voice filled with uncontrollable fury, he told me that if I wanted him to represent me, I would have to agree to not say anything offensive at all about Mumenthaler, whom he described repeatedly as a "fine Swiss citizen who pays a lot of taxes and donates lots of money to Swiss charities." He said he would not agree to file any charges of any type against Mumenthaler and told me to never again ask him to, regardless of how much evidence I have against him.
Finally, he took out a pen, preparing to write on a legal pad in front of him, and asked me to tell him in my own words exactly what I thought of Mumenthaler, assuring me that nothing would offend him. I said, "He's a lying son of a bitch." At that instant, DeGiorgi leapt up and in the most powerful voice he could summon, said: "I no longer represent you." He had assisted the police and judge into emptying all of my banks accounts and stripping me of my US and Swiss passports. Now, his job was done, and I was to be fed to the wolves, which would finish me off. It was most likely part of the plan that I would be represented by an inexperienced public defender. Considering my many medical problems, even a minimal prison sentence would be the equivalent of a death sentence for me.
On 3 January 2002, I received a letter from Dr. DeGiorgi dated 31 December 2001. The letter contained an invoice for CH 5,653.10 (about US $4,000) for legal "services" rendered. After conspiring with the police and judges to render me penniless and unable to travel, he had the consummate gall to send me a bill for his so-called services.
After my release, I discussed my case with several Bernese attorneys specializing in criminal law. The most prominent of them informed me that if I had refused to sign the letters to the banks for the police, I still would have been released in another month or two, with all of my bank accounts and my passports intact. He told me that Dr. DeGiorgi acted improperly by not advising me of this.
Through the kindness and generosity of an American friend, a medical doctor residing in Atlanta, Georgia, I was able to replace Dr. DeGiorgi with an attorney I hope and pray will work hard in my interests instead of representing my adversaries, as Dr. DeGiorgi improperly did. I hope he will try to obtain some justice for me, if such a thing exists for foreigners here. Dr. DeGiorgi said I would have to wait for about a year to go to trial and that I would surely lose to the super-rich, well-connected Mumenthaler. After losing the trial, I will face years in prison, which will be a death sentence for me, considering my serious health problems.
As recently as 29 January 2001, a libelous e-mail message that Armin Risi sent to my British friend, Roger Bunn, was forwarded to me, indicating that Risi and Mumenthaler are continuing to unlawfully access my e-mail accounts, defaming my character and attempting to recruit more false witnesses against me to reinforce their false charges against me. The Swiss police know this has been going on for many months, along with Mumenthaler's telephone terrorism, but they refuse to do anything at all about it. To them, I am "only" an "Auslander" (foreigner), and in practice, foreigners have no rights at all here - particularly Americans.
Sincerely,
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
P.O. Box 1021
Falkenweg 15
CH-3110 M�nsingen
Switzerland
29 January 2002
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