‘Presumed Guilty’ wins award for Best Documentary Feature at International Movie Awards

'Presumed Guilty’ exposes illegal practices committed by Swiss banks, and the aggressive campaign launched against foreign nationals by the Swiss government in an effort to atone for the country’s past sins. Expanding this spring, the documentary that investigates Swiss judicial abuse renews questions about missing evidence and unfair court trial in Switzerland. Lauded by legal experts who say the documentary exposes an ‘ugly truth of the legal system which regularly presumes defendants guilty instead of innocent’
(PR NewsChannel) / March 16, 2016 / LOS ANGELES  
presumed guilty

‘Presumed Guilty,’ which won an award for Best Documentary Feature, will be screened at the International Movie Awards in Jakarta, Indonesia. (

Already receiving accolades from legal experts in the United States and elsewhere for how it exposes illegal practices by Swiss banks, the investigative documentary, “Presumed Guilty,” has now been named an Award of Merit winner at the International Movie Awards.

The bold documentary, produced in the U.S., tells the story of banking corruption in Switzerland and the country’s efforts to prosecute prominent individuals in an effort to win international credibility.

The documentary, which will be screened for the first time at the film festival in Jakarta, Indonesia later this month, gets to the truth behind accusations against former coal mining executives convicted in 2013 of siphoning and laundering money through Swiss bank accounts, and examines a “witch hunt” by the Swiss authorities led to a prosecution of innocents littered with mistakes and prosecutorial negligence.

“I was transfixed,” says Joel A. Brodsky, a well-known and high profile Chicago criminal defense attorney. “It is an ugly truth of the legal system which regularly presumes defendants guilty instead of innocent.”

The movie, directed by American Jijo Reed, documents the case of a former IMF and World Bank Director, Jacques de Grooote, prominent former US officials, and five Czech businessmen and investors, who were involved in MUS, a large, formerly state-owned coal mining company in North Bohemia that was privatized in the 1990s.

(Watch ‘Presumed Guilty’ on YouTube)

The managers were accused, and subsequently convicted, in Switzerland, of negligence and laundering the company’s profits through illegal transactions that prosecutors say involved more than 100 Swiss bank accounts. The Swiss authorities have frozen hundreds of millions of dollars of the company’s assets, despite no proof that any crimes were ever committed on Swiss soil.

At the time, the verdict in Switzerland was seen as a damning indictment of both the ‘wild privatization’ of the 1990’s and also the Czech criminal justice system, which failed to prosecute the case successfully because repeated Czech investigations into the case produced no evidence of wrongdoing.

The International Movie Awards take place at Planet Hollywood Cinema XXI in Jakarta, Indonesia between March 25th –31st, 2016. The festival will also feature screenings, film-making workshops and special guest appearances by filmmakers, media and celebrities.

Notes to Editors
The documentary’s trailer can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/N71-D1HZQ9Y
Produced and directed by the production company, Sugar Studios LA, “Presumed Guilty” seeks to establish a new feature length category for investigative cinematic journalism.

For further information contact:
U.S.A.
Adam Farragut, The Publicity Agency
(813) 708-1220 x7778

EUROPE
Jonathan Hawker, Slate Campaigns
+44 7979907000

Direct link:  https://prnewschannel.com/2016/03/16/presumed-guilty-wins-award-for-best-documentary-feature-at-international-movie-awards/

SOURCE:  Presumed Guilty Movie


This press release is distributed by PR NewsChannel. Your News. Everywhere.