The allegations against Alfred Gantner due to possible conflicts of interest are becoming increasingly explosive: his Partners Group has been buying up gas power plants in the USA for months and is dependent on approvals from Washington to do so.
May 20, 2026, 05:27May 20, 2026, 05:40
In these weeks Switzerland is negotiating a customs deal with the USA. The aim is to convert the temporary tariff reduction from 39 to 15 percent into a binding agreement. The new deal should be in place by the end of July.
Fredy Gantner relies on goodwill from US government circles.Image: keystone
The impetus for the negotiations was the meeting of six Swiss businessmen with US President Donald Trump in Washington at the beginning of November. In addition to compliments and promises of investment, the business delegation also brought two expensive gifts with them: a gold Rolex table clock and a personalized gold bar.
After the meeting, there was criticism of the actions of “Team Switzerland” deep within the bourgeois camp. The accusation is that the entrepreneurs did not primarily pursue the state’s interests with their initiative, but rather their own interests. One person is particularly in focus: Alfred Gantner, co-founder and board member of the Zug-based private equity company Partners Group.
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Gas expansion in North America
According to Gantner, the Partners Group wants to take on a quarter of the investments of over 200 billion dollars that Swiss companies have promised to the USA as part of the deal. In return, she hopes for Trump’s concession in the customs dispute.
But not just there. As research by CH Media shows, Gantner and his Partners Group are also dependent on the US President’s goodwill elsewhere: the Zug-based company has been buying up US gas power plants on a large scale for months – and needs approval from Washington to do so.
The Partners Group has taken over more than 20 gas power plants in the USA since the beginning of 2025. There is also a fleet of mobile systems, for example for operating data centers. Such gas power plants are intended to close supply gaps in times of energy transformation and thus contribute to grid stability. The Partners Group wants to make money from this and has been investing in North American gas infrastructure for years, for example through its Mexican subsidiary Esentia.
Recent investments amount to several billion US dollars. Among other things, the group built eleven gas-fired power plants in the state of California around 2.2 billion dollars costs for two additional plants in Colorado over $450 million. The purchase price for the other systems is not known.
Partners Group’s gas expansion is not only financially important, but also in terms of energy policy. The combined nominal output of the acquired US gas power plants amounts to 3,629 megawatts. For comparison: The four remaining nuclear power plants in Switzerland – Gösgen, Leibstadt and the two Beznau reactors – have a combined output of 3,095 megawatts.
Gantner’s win-win strategy
Since the gas power plants are critical infrastructure, the Partners Group must go through an approval process from the US government authority for each new takeover Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius). The company has already received the necessary approval for some of the systems, but approval from the US authorities is still pending for others.
Major investor in the USA: Partners Group based in Baar.Image: stefan kaiser/chmedia
The Partners Group makes the investments through US subsidiaries and holds them as part of its investment portfolio. However, since the headquarters of the parent company is in Switzerland, the purchases made in the current year are likely to be counted as part of the investment promise to Trump.
Against this background, the allegations against Gantner due to possible conflicts of interest take on new significance. North America is the most important market for his Partners Group. The SMI Group is holding steady there 50 percent of its total global investment of over $180 billion. The USA is also an important sales market for companies in the Partners Group portfolio, such as Breitling and its watches.
Gantner therefore has a vested interest in Trump lowering tariffs and Switzerland investing more in the USA in return. He and his colleagues have both with their “Gold Bar Diplomacy” – like that “Wall Street Journal” the offensive of the captains of industry called – achieved.
Confronted with this, the talkative businessman weighs it down:
“There were and are no conflicts of interest.”
The gifts brought were “known to the Federal Council” and were “customary in the USA and other parts of the world”. The Partners Group has been investing in critical infrastructure in the USA for years and enjoys “an excellent reputation among both political camps”.
Seco is withholding documents
Meanwhile, the most pressing questions surrounding the unusual business meeting in the Oval Office remain unanswered: How did the meeting go? How much room for negotiation did the entrepreneurs have? What did the Federal Council know? How much was agreed upon in advance?
Gantner has always emphasized that the meeting was coordinated “one-on-one” with the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) – in the knowledge that, according to the Federal Constitution, the implementation of a customs agreement is the sole responsibility of the state government. When asked, he said that the Federal Council had “asked him for support in the customs negotiations” because of the Partners Group’s good US relations.
Golden gifts, red ties: Swiss business leaders visit the Oval Office.Image: zvg
The Federal Council and Seco, however, insist that the actual implementation of the meeting was a private initiative by the companies. To this day, Federal Bern remains tight-lipped about the details. Based on the public information law, CH Media had already requested access to correspondence with the members of Team Switzerland in December. But Seco refuses to release them – despite the corresponding recommendation from the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.
Meanwhile, the Swiss judiciary is examining whether the entrepreneurs may have committed a criminal offense during their visit to Washington. Two Green National Councilors and the Juso had after the meeting Report filed with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. They see Article 322 of the Criminal Code, which concerns “bribery of foreign officials”, violated.
It’s about “the credibility of our institutions, respect for the rule of law and Switzerland’s international reputation,” says the Greens’ advertisement. Transparency International speaks of a “delicate case” and raises the question: “Was this still cultivating relationships or was it bribery?” The gifts far exceeded anything customary internationally.
The decision as to whether a criminal investigation will be opened is likely to be made soon. Due to the great public interest, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office wants to “communicate this as soon as possible”. (aargauerzeitung.ch)
More about the Swiss customs deal: