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Decision after 168 days of negotiations: The Vienna Regional Court has sentenced former Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser to eight years in prison for infidelity.
The 51-year-old man was charged with giving a private investor the decisive purchase price data necessary to outperform a competitor by selling 60,000 federal apartments in 2004. In exchange for the notice, the prosecution alleged that about 9.6 Million euros, one percent of the purchase price of 961 million euros, flowed into the suspect’s pockets.
The prosecution spoke of a “joint criminal plan” by Grasser and his accomplices for their own benefit. More than 14 defendants also received lengthy prison terms.
Grasser was Finance Minister from 2000 to 2007, until 2003 he was a member of the right-wing FPÖ, later not a party. According to ORF, he denied the allegations in court. The defense is believed to appeal the sentence. The process before the Vienna Regional Court has been taking place since December 2017.
