swissoppress

ZEWO – and its director, Martina Zigerer

is a dictator in the charity market in Switzerland and encompassing all major charitable organizations in Switzerland—such as the Swiss Red Cross (SRK), Caritas Schweiz, Pro Juventute, HEKS/EPER, Swissaid, WWF, Terre des Hommes Schweiz, Helvetas, and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)—and occupies a commanding position, obstructing the endeavors of any organization outside its membership.

At the very outset of our charitable activities, ZEWO demanded that we cease our work. In 1997, when Mr. Gerasjuta was invited for an interview on the program Quer on Switzerland’s main TV channel SRF1, he met ZEWO’s president backstage. She insistently urged us to halt the collection of donations for Ukrainians in need. When we refused to comply and continued our efforts, a deluge of negative press articles descended upon us, precipitating a sharp decline in contributions. Subsequently, the banks Postfinance and Berner Kantonalbank closed our accounts. ZEWO’s paramount objective is the relentless struggle against competitors until their utter annihilation.

We have been unjustly accused of opacity, despite our annual reports being scrutinized by independent auditors in Switzerland and Ukraine, submitted to the state authority ESA in Bern, and published openly on our website. ZEWO possesses formidable political ties—so potent that it swayed governmental bodies to prohibit our activities. Under the pretext of championing transparency and certifying ostensibly trustworthy organizations, ZEWO stigmatizes all others as unreliable, waging a campaign to eradicate competition. Weaker entities falter under this strain and perish. The state actively abets ZEWO in executing its anti-competitive designs. Ultimately, ZEWO orchestrated the expulsion of Mr. Gerasjuta from the charitable sector, wielding the media, banks, and Swiss government officials as its instruments.

Independent courts in the EU and in the United States should conduct a thorough investigation to:

• Assess the significant moral and material damages caused by ZEWO;
• Demand compensation from Swiss organizations under ZEWO and individuals, involved in the forced liquidation of Sergej Gerasjuta’s businesses and charitable enterprises;
• Impose strict sanctions on ZEWO organizations that deliberately obstructed Sergej Gerasjuta’s charitable activities in Switzerland, as well as on their leaders and their family members.

The court must hold ZEWO accountable for violating the right to humanitarian activity, contributing to the destruction of Gerasjuta’s charitable organizations, and being responsible for the deaths of impoverished and sick Ukrainians

Due to the politicized nature of this case, the legal proceedings in Switzerland concerning the fabricated criminal charges cannot be impartial.

Under the pseudonym Kris Kristi, Mr. Gerasjuta wrote the first part of his book,
Human Heritage Museum. Foundations,
in whose penultimate chapter he began recounting his persecution in Switzerland. He is currently working on a sequel, where he will explore these topics in detail. We plan to publish the book in multiple languages worldwide.

All the charitable organizations Sergej Gerasjuta established to assist impoverished and sick people in Ukraine have been destroyed.

Weg zur Rettung, SOS Gerasjuta, SOS GERASJUTA STIFTUNG, Jugendprojekt, and the association Retten Sie Leben (Save lives) operated legally within the framework of their statutory activities. They maintained strict accounting records, which were supervised by independent professional auditing firms in both Ukraine and Switzerland.

Currently, Mr. Gerasjuta is being prosecuted in a fabricated case. His business and personal accounts in Switzerland and Ukraine have been frozen. From a successful leader, philanthropist, and businessman, Sergej Gerasjuta has been turned into a destitute, homeless bankrupt.

During the court hearings in the EU and in the United States, the obstruction of our charitable fundraising campaigns will be examined step by step from their very inception. A thorough analysis will be conducted of the actions of all individuals who have negatively influenced them.

The following individuals will testify in court as witnesses:

• Our employees in Switzerland and Ukraine, who are eyewitnesses to the events. They will provide an insider’s perspective on our work and present detailed reports and necessary documents.
• Needy patients whose health conditions worsened after they stopped receiving vital medications from our organization.
• Hospital doctors whose patients survived thanks to the life-saving support we provided.
• Family members of deceased individuals residing in Ukraine, EU countries, and the USA, whose relatives passed away as a result of the ban on our humanitarian activities in Switzerland.

Our independent auditor confirmed in the annual reports that administrative expenses accounted for a reasonable 17–23% of the collected donations. However, the supervisory authority, ESA in Bern, conducted its own unconventional calculations, asserting that only 12-15% of funds reached those in need, while a staggering 85-88% was allocated to administration. These figures were derived using non-standard methods, unrecognized in the charitable sector, where aid projects are typically evaluated in their entirety rather than based solely on direct payments to individuals. Relying on these contested numbers, the ESA imposed a prohibition on our foundation’s activities.

The principle behind the unconventional calculation lies in attorney Eckenstein’s use of accounting methods that charitable organizations, including ZEWO-members, do not employ in their financial reporting. Typically, foundations classify entire projects as „aid,“ encompassing various administrative expenses — such as portions of staff salaries or rent for spaces used in project implementation. Additionally, all funds spent in the recipient country are recorded as „aid.“
In our case, however, Eckenstein counted only the direct payments to those in need, excluding all other costs tied with charitable activities. This approach resulted in a skewed ratio of 12-15% aid versus 85-88% administrative expenses. If this same method were applied to other organizations, their figures would undoubtedly be comparable.

An independent auditor, adhering to professional standards, conducted a proper assessment and confirmed that our actual administrative expenses ranged from 17% to 23% across different years. Nevertheless, ZEWO and ESA endorsed the attorney’s flawed calculations. Their intent was clear — to eliminate a competitor. ZEWO and third parties then disseminated biased data through commissioned media publications, branding our foundation as self-serving rather than charitable. Though Mr. Gerasjuta’s salary was average for Switzerland and significantly lower than that of leaders of ZEWO-affiliated organizations, the press—under ZEWO’s influence—deliberately concealed this fact, misleading the public.

• Legal action against ZEWO – we intend to challenge ZEWO’s dominance in court. This private foundation, supported by the media, Swiss banks, and government officials, has been systematically suppressing organizations that are not part of its structure. Our goal is to expose its hostile actions and ensure the free operation of independent organizations in Switzerland.
• Supporting a foundation – we ask for support for our organization, Swissoppress, in protecting independent organizations from ZEWO’s restrictive practices and promoting a free market in the charity sector
• Opening a free charity market in Switzerland – we are fighting for a free and open market in the charitable sector and against those who obstruct it.

Negative media coverage, orchestrated by ZEWO and the third party, had a severely adverse effect on our donations. They marshaled every conceivable resource in their harassment campaign — newspapers, radio, television, the internet, along with banks and Swiss government officials. These reports relentlessly promoted ZEWO as the sole beacon of transparency, portraying its members as the only ones worthy of trust while urging the public to withdraw their support from SOS GERASJUTA STIFTUNG.
Swayed by ZEWO’s propaganda, the population became reluctant to donate to our projects. The resulting poor donations significantly hindered our ability to disburse aid, as administrative and fundraising costs remained constant. Ultimately, the low proportion of funds directed towards aid compared to administrative expenses became the formal reason for banning our activities.

Thus, ZEWO’s calculated campaign to tarnish our foundation’s reputation directly led to the downfall of our charitable organization.

SRF 1 – Switzerland’s main television channel

has repeatedly aired programs praising ZEWO while portraying our organization, SOS GERASJUTA, in a negative light. These broadcasts occurred on multiple occasions, notably on February 14, 1997, and December 8, 2015.
One program even displayed our returned letters with official return postmarks. According to postal regulations, these letters should have been sent back to us. However, instead of following proper procedure, Swiss Post handed them over to SRF 1.
The broadcast explicitly stated that only organizations certified by ZEWO are trustworthy, implying that others, including ours, were not. This serves as direct evidence of ZEWO’s immense influence in Switzerland: even the nation’s leading TV-channel dances to its tune, creating biased reports that discredit organizations not affiliated with ZEWO while promoting favorable coverage for ZEWO itself.
In its broadcasts, SRF 1 disseminated defamatory content, openly siding with an individual hostile toward us, thereby discouraging public donations to our cause. Significantly, none of our sponsors or supporters was given any representation in these broadcasts, highlighting the lack of balance.
The biased SRF 1 report in 2015 played a crucial role in the subsequent ban of our activities: we began receiving inquiries from the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA), and the process of dismantling our charitable organization was set in motion.

The Red Cross logo on our handwritten letters – those were our joint campaigns. In the early 2000s, Lyudmila Krasnyuk, chairwoman of the Red Cross in Mykolaiv, proposed a partnership. Together, we organized fundraising efforts in Switzerland, with letters, handwritten by needy residents of Mykolaiv to Swiss benefactors, featuring the logos of both organizations. The funds collected were split equally, and the donations gathered in Switzerland were transferred to the account of the Mykolaiv Regional Red Cross Organization.
However, Lyudmila Krasnyuk faced pressure from the Swiss side — she was warned not to operate in „someone else’s territory“ or risk losing her job. As a result, she was forced to end the collaboration. 

The Swiss press portrayed our joint actions in the way ZEWO presented them — as a falsification involving the Red Cross logo — without ever seeking our perspective. The media failed to convey the real facts and truth to the public.

Our efforts were challenging because we depended solely on modest contributions from private individuals — no other support reached us.  In contrast, ZEWO-affiliated organizations enjoy substantial funding from the government and major corporations, freeing them from the need to spend resources on fundraising. We had no such privilege. Despite ZEWO’s influence and the negative image created by biased media, ordinary people continued to offer us small donations.
Just as we were denied the right to exist in Switzerland, so too will any other nascent organization, without ZEWO’s backing, inevitably perish—for ZEWO ensures its demise.

A deliberate campaign of harassment was launched against our activities in the media. This was not mere criticism but a calculated effort to smear our reputation. Conspicuously biased articles appeared in local newspapers across all regions where we conducted fundraising campaigns. These reports branded SOS Gerasjuta as dubious and untrustworthy, openly urging people not to support our beneficiaries in Ukraine but to donate only to organizations certified by ZEWO.
At the hearings of an independent court in the United States, each publication from regional newspapers, magazines, and TV channels will be thoroughly examined.

We made every effort to ensure full transparency: in Switzerland, our accounting was overseen by an independent Swiss auditor, and in Ukraine, by a Ukrainian one. Completed reports, prepared by a professional auditor, were submitted for review to the supervisory authority ESA in Bern and made publicly available on our website. What could be more transparent? But ZEWO claimed: ‚Not transparent,‘ and all the media, without conducting an objective analysis, simply repeated this statement.

The Swiss press lacks objectivity and is deeply influenced by a nationalist bias. Rather than investigating the essence of the issue, it relied entirely on information provided by ZEWO. From the very beginning of our charitable work, the media launched attacks against us. Mr. Gerasjuta had only just started, driven by a sincere desire to help his compatriots, yet he was immediately met with hostility.

The charity market in Switzerland is not free. ZEWO fiercely protects it from foreigners and emerging organizations. We were explicitly told to shut down our activities — there were already enough charities, so why do we create another one? But Mr. Gerasjuta wanted to help Ukrainian people in need and refused to stop. For this, a torrent of dirt came crashing down on us. We personally experienced the full force of ZEWO’s influence.

Fighting the powerful ZEWO was tough, but thanks to a small group of kind-hearted Swiss people, we managed to hold on and continue supporting poor Ukrainians. However, the odds were stacked against us. In the end, ZEWO achieved its goal — through biased media, Swiss banks, and government officials, we were forced out of the charity market.

Fundraising is no easy task. Try sending out a mailing asking for financial support for a charitable cause, and you’ll quickly realize how difficult it is. And if the media turns against your initiative, even those who would like to donate won’t do so. Your project is doomed to failure.

Sergej Gerasjuta was neither the first nor the last to have his charitable work in Switzerland destroyed. Many other budding organizations with excellent ideas and noble intentions have been ruthlessly crushed. Materials could be collected and a documentary film produced about this injustice.

sergej gerasjuta (under the pseudonym Kris Kristi) has already written his first book, Human Heritage Museum. Basics, in German and Russian. A second book is now being prepared for publication. It will reveal the whole truth about how ZEWO-led Swiss charitable organizations deviously and dishonestly eliminate their competitors. The book will be supported by documents, facts, and eyewitness accounts — from our employees, hospital doctors, our beneficiaries, and relatives of the deceased.

Settlement Agreement

As the aggrieved party, Sergej Gerasjuta is open to considering the possibility of a settlement agreement. Those responsible for the destruction of our charitable organizations and discrimination must provide fair compensation for the material and moral damage inflicted. This will serve as redress for all the suffering he has endured, enable the restoration of his charitable activities, allow him to regain his lost business, and assist those in need harmed by their destructive actions.
If a settlement agreement is reached, we will forgo the implementation of all previously stated points.
However, if legal proceedings are initiated, they will be pursued to the very end. Charitable and public activities aimed at combating human rights violations in Switzerland will continue and expand further.