Absolutely unreasonable Ex-gravel baron from the Lucerne hinterland keeps courts in suspense
The Willisau LU district court has almost 90 entries against a 65-year-old businessman. The man is a regular. The court explains this as "economic greed and absolute lack of understanding".
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- An ex-gravel entrepreneur and farmer from the canton of Lucerne keeps ending up in court for fraud, embezzlement and misappropriation.
- The Willisau district court alone has almost 90 entries against him, including for cruelty to animals.
- The man shows no understanding.
- The next hearing for tax fraud will take place on Thursday at the cantonal court in Lucerne.
As an ex-gravel baron from the Lucerne hinterland, he is well known in the media and the criminal prosecution authorities know him anyway. The 65-year-old entrepreneur is a regular there - let's call him Meyer like the "Luzerner Zeitung". The Willisau district court alone has almost 90 entries concerning him.
The cases often revolve around money owed, property disputes or unpaid party costs. Attachment fraud, forgery of documents, embezzlement and offenses against administrative criminal law are also on the list of charges. At one point, however, it was only a matter of an outstanding invoice for 80 francs.
In 2012, however, the Federal Supreme Court sentenced him to prison because Meyer had embezzled millions with his gravel companies.
Meyer also keeps the courts busy as an employer
The entrepreneur also came into conflict with the cantonal building law when he began construction work before a corresponding permit had been issued. The Willisau district court therefore fined him 800 francs in 2016. Meyer did not accept the ruling and took the matter to the Federal Supreme Court, incurring several thousand francs in additional legal costs.
In the same year, the judiciary also had to deal with Meyer as an employer. Over the course of seven months, his employees made over 400 journeys from A to B in overloaded trucks.
His unlawful possession of vehicles - cars, tractors and telehandlers - got him into trouble several times. In 2018, he was therefore found guilty of multiple counts of embezzlement.
His cows were up to their bellies in mud
But Meyer was also convicted several times in his role as a farmer, running several farms in the canton of Lucerne together with his wife. For example, he failed to pay feed bills and cheated contractors out of their money.
He also violated the Animal Welfare Act. A 136-page judgment of the court of first instance describes stables "soiled with enormous amounts of excrement" and sick and injured animals that did not receive the necessary care or attention. In November 2021, the Willisau district court sentenced the couple to heavy fines for animal cruelty.
None of this seems to bother Meyer. As early as 2018, the court wrote in a ruling about him that there was no "particular sensitivity to punishment". The penalties imposed seem to have made "little impression" on him, with his behavior leaving the impression of "unteachability". Meyer himself informed the Luzerner Zeitung via his lawyer that he did not wish to speak to the media.
The next hearing will take place on Thursday at the Lucerne cantonal court. Meyer was sentenced to 16 months in prison in May 2023 for multiple counts of tax fraud - a sentence he is not prepared to accept.
