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– Peschorn: Court decisions are factual decisions – WKStA Vienna’s complaint was not followed up either
Vienna (OTS) – With its decision of 4 November 2020, which was notified today, the Higher Regional Court of Vienna rejected the complaints of the WKStA and the Republic of Austria against the suspension of the preliminary investigation on suspicion of fraud in the acquisition of the Eurofighters in 2003 and the so-called 2003 2007 settlement by the Vienna Regional Criminal Court is not given. This puts an end to all criminal investigations in Austria initiated by the report in 2017 on suspicion of fraud in connection with the acquisition of the Eurofighters.
Wolfgang Peschorn, Chairman of the Financial Prosecutor’s Office: “The termination of the investigations against Eurofighter Jagflugzeuge GmbH and Airbus cannot be reconciled with the decisions of the German and US criminal authorities and the report of the trial judge in the Eurofighter investigation committee which ended in 2019.”
Ultimately, the decision was made on the basis that the Austrian tax authorities in the previous three-and-a-half-year investigation were unable to present the well-founded suspicion of fraud against the Republic of Austria by means of sufficient results of their own investigations to the extent that that a continuation of the criminal investigation would be justified.
In his final report, procedural judge Dr. Ronald Rohrer unequivocally states, among other things, that funds from the Airbus Group were diverted for unfair purposes. Airbus also accepted a fine of € 81.25 million imposed on the Group by the Munich Public Prosecutor for its misconduct and admitted to the US authorities that a partial amount of the purchase price of € 55 paid by the Republic of Austria for the Eurofighter 1 million for “Political donations” have used.
Peschorn: “Today I informed the Federal Minister of National Defense about the decision of the Vienna Regional High Court, with which the prosecutor’s investigations in Austria on suspicion of fraud in the acquisition of the Eurofighters have ended. Our determined attitude in addressing the well-founded suspicion of fraud was justified in the light of the results of our investigation, which were confirmed by foreign criminal authorities and Eurofighter’s investigation committee, and in the interest of taxpayers. But court decisions create facts that must be accepted. “
The Financial Prosecutor’s Office was commissioned by Federal Minister Tanner, together with experts from the Federal Ministry of Defense, to comprehensively analyze the consequences of the decision of the Higher Regional Court of Vienna.
Queries and contact:
Financial attorney,
Singerstraße 17-19
A-1011 Vienna
