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The leader of the SPÖ faction in the U-Committee, Kai Jan Krainer, files a complaint against the finance minister Gernot Blümel, his predecessor Hartwig Löger (both ÖVP) and the head of Öbag Thomas Schmid, as well as against the former head of Novomatic , Harald Neumann, due to suspicion of Abuse of office, false testimony and corruption. The reason is an alleged agreement between the Ministry of Finance led by ÖVP and Novomatic in the run-up to a general meeting of Casag in June 2018.
The U-Committee is in possession of documents that would show a “close coordination” between the actors of the Ministry of Finance and Novomatic before the 2018 general meeting. According to Krainer, these could “contribute significantly to clarifying the complaints raised in the criminal process in question “. The documents would now go to the Public Ministry for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) during the presentation of the facts.
Based on these, Krainer suspects that the ÖVP-led Ministry of Finance tried to secure control of Casinos Austria AG (Casag) in 2018. At that time, Novomatic tipped the balance in view of the ownership structure. Because Öbib (now Öbag) had 33.24 percent in Casag, Novomatic at that time 17.19 percent and the Sazka Group through a subsidiary 38.29 percent.
