Jakob Sieber

Jakob Sieber (* 28. December 1845 in Ichertswil (today municipality Lüterkofen-Ichertswil ); † 28. June 1915 in Burgdorf ) was a Solothurn Government Council , which for fraud and forgery 5½ years in prison sat.

Sieber was the son of a straw decker . He completed an apprenticeship as a bank clerk. After various professional functions and a political career with the FDP canton Solothurn , he was elected to the government council (the cantonal government) in 1874. At the same time, he worked as an accountant for the watch company Roth & Cie., Which was the debtor of the cantonal mortgage bank at the time . When the company got into trouble, Sieber beautified the general ledger of the accounting department by 800,000 francs, an enormous amount in today's currency, including the devaluation. At about the same time, the mortgage bank got into trouble. During the investigation of these facts, which also brought three people, including the «Hypo» director and former Cantonal Councilor Leo Niggli , behind bars, Sieber's forgeries were also revealed. The whole thing formed the climax of the so-called bank crash . Sieber was sentenced to 5½ years in prison in 1888 after 13 years as a councilor.

literature

• M. Angst: The Solothurn bank crash and the constitutional revision of 1887 , Diss. Zurich, 1986.

Web links

• Tobias Krüger: Sieber, Jakob. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .