The complaint concerns over the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s alleged use of a cryptography company as a front to spy on various governments’ secret communication.
This was a Rubicoin operation involving the CIA and German BND spy services to read other countries’ secret messages.
It used technology sold by Swiss company Crypto AG. This case is very unpleasant for neutral Switzerland and can thus damage the international reputation of that state.
“The Office of the Attorney General confirms it has received a criminal complaint by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) dated Feb. 2, 2020 regarding possible violations of export control law,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement. SECO is part of the Swiss Economy Ministry.
The report states that the Prosecutor General’s Office will examine the complaint before initiating criminal proceedings, the statement said and confirmed by newspaper SonntagsZeitung.
The technology was sold to governments such as Argentina, Chile, Iran, India, Libya, Pakistan, Egypt.
What is most shocking is that the technology has deliberately created shortcomings so that messages can be read easily by spies from the US and Germany.
SonntagsZeitung said SECO, “which is in charge of authorizing exports of sensitive equipment, believes it was deceived into clearing the sale of Crypto’s machines and software, and argues it would never have done so had it known of the scheme.”
Switzerland is shaken and puts pressure on Parliament to investigate as soon as possible who knew about the system.
As a major step, the government appointed a former Supreme Court judge to review this Rubicon as soon as possible and report back by the end of June.
Information provided by NY TIMES