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It is considered one of the most important corruption trials in Austria, and ended on Friday in Vienna with a thunderclap for the main defendant: Karl-Heinz Grasser, Austria’s finance minister for many years, is sentenced to eight years in prison for infidelity. . The judge also announced long-term prison sentences for lobbyists and businessmen Walter Meischberger and Peter Hochegger who were co-defendants.
It took more than a decade to settle the so-called Buwog affair, only three years in the court case. These were the accusations of millionaire bribery payments, which should have arisen in 2004 with the privatization of the Buwog housing company and thus 60,000 state-owned apartments. At that time, the winning bidders paid Meischberger and Hochegger € 9.6 million, one percent of the purchase price. According to the indictment, when the tax authorities rented an office building in Linz, another € 200,000 was paid in commission. According to the indictment, it was a bribe to Grasser and his partners who, in return, are said to have passed important information on to the winning bidders.
Another factor in the matter was the 500,000 euros, which Grasser, as finance minister at the time, paid in cash at a bank. He claimed that he received the money in Switzerland from his mother-in-law and then brought it to Austria. Later, however, the money flowed into the account in Liechtenstein, to which part of the Buwog commission flowed. The prosecutor saw this as proof that Grasser won part of the commission. This rejected all the accusations.
Grasser’s marriage to crystal heiress Fiona Swarovski made him a boulevard favorite
The case also shed light on conditions in the first ÖVP / FPÖ governments from 2000 to 2006. The ÖVP Chancellor at the time was Wolfgang Schüssel, who, along with Jörg Haider’s FPÖ troops, dedicated himself to “renewing Austria “. Grasser, who was one of the legendary “Buberlpartie” of the Haider youth, served as finance minister first for the FPÖ and then non-partisan. Newly called KHG in the media, Grasser was considered an exceptional political talent with a glamor factor, his marriage to Fiona Swarovski, the heiress of the crystal company, made him a favorite on the boulevard. He currently lives in seclusion on a farm near Kitzbühel and, according to his own court statements, he has no job, home or car.
The verdicts against him are now devastating: the court considers it proven that Grasser caused damage to the Republic of Austria by infidelity, acceptance of gifts and falsification of evidence. According to the judge, he abused his political function, violated patrimonial interests and did not fulfill his obligations as Minister of Finance. “Those who do business honestly do not need accounts in Liechtenstein,” the judge said. The verdicts are not final, Grasser’s attorney announced an appeal.
