Urs Schwarzenbach

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Urs Schwarzenbach

CStJ
Born
Urs Ernst Schwarzenbach

(1948-09-17) 17 September 1948 (age 75)
Thalwil, Zürich, Switzerland
SpouseFrancesca Mulhall
Children2
RelativesClifton Wrottesley, 6th Baron Wrottesley (son-in-law)

Urs Ernst Schwarzenbach, CStJ (born 17 September 1948[1]) is a Swiss billionaire, financier and art collector. He is the founder of Interexchange, the largest foreign exchange agency, in Switzerland.[2][3] His fortune is estimated between 1.5 to 2 billion Swiss Francs as of 2022 by Handelszeitung.[4][5]

Schwarzenbach was is a former long-time resident of Aston, Berkshire, where he owned Culham Court.[6][7] He moved back to Switzerland, where he currently resides in Küsnacht on Lake Zurich.[8][9] Most recently he was sentenced by Swiss courts for importing 83 art pieces without customs clearance into Switzerland. He was fined 6 million Swiss Francs.[10][11] In 2022, he was ordered by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland to pay 160 million Swiss Francs in back taxes.[12][13]

Early life and education[edit]

Urs Schwarzenbach was born in Thalwil in 1948, and raised in Küsnacht. He is the son of a print shop owner.[14]

Career[edit]

Culham Court, 2007

Schwarzenbach set up Interexchange, the largest foreign exchange dealership in Switzerland.[citation needed] Through its success, he has bought well over £300m of property in the UK[citation needed], 123,000 acres (500 km2) in Australia[citation needed], a palace in Morocco[citation needed], £17m of assets in the aviation field[citation needed] and the Grand Hotel Dolder in Zürich.[15] He has his own polo team, the Black Bears, which has some 600 ponies, with 350 in Australia and 250 in the UK.[citation needed]

He backed the racing-themed restaurant Café Grand Prix in Mayfair, London, but this went into liquidation in 2004.[citation needed] In 2005, Schwarzenbach was estimated to be worth around £900m but, according to The Sunday Times Rich List 2012, he was ranked 87th with an estimated worth of circa £850m.[citation needed]

In 2007, Schwarzenbach outbid other foreign buyers to acquire Culham Court, a 650-acre (2.6 km2) riverside estate downstream of Henley-on-Thames on the Berkshire bank. Schwarzenbach bought the estate from Paddy and Annabel Nicoll for £35 million. Mrs Nicoll's father is Sir Martyn Arbib, former head of the Perpetual fund management company, who bought the estate as a wedding present for her in 1997 for £12 million.[16] Coincidentally, Culham's connections with the world of finance run deeper still; Arbib acquired the property from Felicity Behrens, wife of the banker Michael Behrens, who lived there for nearly half a century from 1949 to 1996.[citation needed]

Schwarzenbach's development of the Culham Court estate still continues with the extension of the existing 90-acre (36 ha) deer park with over 4 kilometres of wrought iron deer fencing, a mile long "London" drive through beech woodland to the main road, the 2010 £8 million acquisition of three cottages and the original walled gardens which will be reinstated to provide fresh fruit and vegetables for the main house, a new ha-ha, and a security system including a "hard" room.[citation needed]

The latest creation is a maze requiring the planting of 20,000 mature yew bushes; this part of the 20-year plan that has been devised for the gardens and grounds. Another property acquired for £2m in 2010, and situated on raised ground that overlooks Culham Court, has been demolished and Culham Chapel was built in its place. Symm, the Oxford-based building company undertaking all the work on the Culham estate, now sponsors the Hambleden Horse Trials.[citation needed]

In 2008, it was reported in the press that Schwarzenbach had bought nearby Fawley Court for £22 million. Another substantial riverside property on the outskirts of Henley-on-Thames and once owned in the nineteenth century by a Scottish banker, it was sold in controversial circumstances by the Congregation of Marian Fathers, a Polish religious community which had no further use for it. During 2012, extensive building works continue on the main house yet again with Symms continuing to be the main beneficiary of the contract and work at the two lodges adjacent to the A4130 at the main entrance to the "London drive" are being completed after well over a year and some interesting underground developments. In 2012 the Schwarzenbachs revoked their consent for the permissive footpath that had run alongside the Thames in front of Culham Court as part of the Thames Path for many years.[citation needed]

Schwarzenbach has paid for the high and low voltage overhead electricity network within the boundaries of Culham estate to be placed underground.[citation needed]

VAT fraud and art trafficking with Galerie Gmurzynska[edit]

In 2013/14, Schwarzenbach was investigated by the FCA (Federal Customs Administration) for alleged VAT fraud totalling some ten million Swiss francs and art trafficking. Under Swiss law, owners of artworks do not have to pay import charges until works of art are formally brought into the country, i.e. they come out of storage and are officially transferred. On Tuesday 16 April 2013, Schwarzenbach's Hotel Dolder in Zurich, which had been displaying a lavish art collection, was raided by Swiss customs officials. This action was simultaneous with a raid on nearby Galerie Gmurzynska on the suspicion of supplying the five-star Hotel Dolder with imported artworks valuing 75M Swiss Francs without paying duty.[15]

The Swiss authorities seized a large number of documents during their raid. Gmurzynska filed a complaint to prevent their inspection, but the Federal Court has ruled that in a criminal investigation of this kind where there is reasonable suspicion, the prosecuting FCA can demand to see papers it considers relevant to the case.[17]

The case has been covered in several international outlets including 'Die Welt'.[18]

In October 2016 the Swiss Customs Directorate finalised a compelling case that Schwarzenbach in effect had legally exported artefacts for a value of at least 130 million CHF and smuggled them back into Switzerland.[19] Schwarzenbach eventually admitted the charge and also accepted to pay the VAT amounting to ten million CHF. However, by October 2016 he was still objecting to pay the fine of 4 million Swiss francs.[20]

Dolder Grand Hotel[edit]

The Dolder Grand Hotel, Zurich

He owns the Dolder Grand, a 5-star Zurich hotel, which cost him SFr 440 million.[21]

Australian property[edit]

Schwarzenbach owns about 50,000 hectares of farmland in New South Wales, Australia, through his Romani Pastoral Company. Most of this is between Harden and Jugiong, and includes the polo estate Garangula, as well as Redbank, a house once owned by the impresario Robert Stigwood.[14]

Morocco[edit]

He bought part of Palais Layadi, a 19th-century palace set in a 4,000 square meter compound in Marrakech, since at least 2008. The main parts of Palais Layadi (Palais Soleiman) which include the reception area still belong to the moroccan Segueni's family.[22] [23]

Philanthropy[edit]

Schwarzenbach has supported the internal and external refurbishment of the Venerable English College in Rome,[24] as well as its engagement of a research fellow and project archivist.[25]

Personal life[edit]

Schwarzenbach lives at Culham Court near Henley-on-Thames and sponsored the rowing gallery of the River and Rowing Museum in Henley which is named after him. He owns other estates and farms in England, a 10,000 acre sporting estate in Scotland and the largest country estate on the Isle of Wight.[citation needed]

His wife, Francesca Schwarzenbach-Mulhall, is a former Miss Australia, born in Sydney,[14] and is a godmother of Lady Louise Windsor, the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh.[citation needed]

The couple have two children. Their daughter Sascha is married to Irish Olympian Clifton Wrottesley, 6th Baron Wrottesley. They live in St Moritz, Switzerland, and London, England, and have four children.[26]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Stefan Lüscher: Der Hexer von Hambleden. In: Bilanz 7/2008, S. 38.
  2. ^ "Urs Schwarzenbach: the private currency trader with Swiss tax authorities on his case". inkl. 20 May 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  3. ^ "Urs Schwarzenbach". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  4. ^ "Bilanz 300 Reichste 2022: Urs Schwarzenbach | BILANZ". Handelszeitung (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  5. ^ Hässig, Lukas (13 May 2022). "Dolder-Milliardär Schwarzenbach verkaufte seine Gulfstream". Inside Paradeplatz (in German). Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  6. ^ Harris, John. "Billionaire's new chapel unveiled". www.henleystandard.co.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  7. ^ "Urs Schwarzenbach". www.ursschwarzenbach.crazybillionaire.org. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  8. ^ "Brexit ist nicht der Grund: Milliardär Schwarzenbach verlegt Wohnsitz nach Küsnacht". Blick (in Swiss High German). 25 February 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  9. ^ "Urs Ernst Schwarzenbach in Küsnacht". Moneyhouse (in German). Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  10. ^ "Zürcher Gericht verurteilt Schwarzenbach zu Busse von 6 Millionen". SWI swissinfo.ch (in German). 2 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  11. ^ "Mehrwertsteuer-Delikt: Hotel-Dolder-Besitzer Urs Schwarzenbach verliert erneut vor Gericht". Handelszeitung (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  12. ^ "Aus dem Bundesgericht – Urs Schwarzenbach muss 160 Millionen Franken Steuern nachzahlen". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). 23 May 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  13. ^ Flury, Reto. "Schmuggel, Steuern, Millionen – wie der Financier Urs E. Schwarzenbach ins Visier der Schweizer Behörden geriet | NZZ". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  14. ^ a b c "Currency trader Urs Schwarzenbach expands NSW farm holding". Propertyobserver.com.au. 26 June 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  15. ^ a b "Hotel Dolder Grand and Galerie Gmurzynska raided – In The Local News". zurich4you.ch. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  16. ^ "Financier offers £10m over the asking price for record country house sale". London Evening Standard. 27 August 2006. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  17. ^ "Galerie Gmurzynska blitzt vor Bundesgericht ab – News Zürich: Region". Tages Anzeiger. 16 May 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  18. ^ Miller, Anna (23 November 2011). "Steuerskandal: Kunst? Keine schöne Bescherung in Zürich". Die Welt. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  19. ^ Article "Saftige Busse für Dolder-Besitzer: Kunstschmuggel nachgewiesen", Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), 24 October 2016, page 17.
  20. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24 October 2016.
  21. ^ "Urs Schwarzenbach – He renovated the famous Grand Hotel Dolder of Zurich". Hotelresortinsider.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  22. ^ "Greatest Homes and Destinations". The New York Times. 9 December 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  23. ^ "Marrakech : Le palais Soleiman, enjeu d'une série de procès". Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  24. ^ "The archives and the Schwarzenbach Research Fellowship". Venerable English College in Rome. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  25. ^ "A brief history of the English College". Venerable English College in Rome. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  26. ^ Ian Chadband (20 February 2002). "Irish Lancelot lords it up over Britain | Sport". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
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