Home International Ex Austrian finance minister sentenced to eight years in prison over corruption allegation

Ex Austrian finance minister sentenced to eight years in prison over corruption allegation

by Mustapha Olamide
0 comment

A Vienna court on Friday sentenced a flamboyant, jet-setting former Austrian minister of finance Karl-Heinz Grasser to eight years in prison within the country’s biggest corruption trial since war II.

Karl-Heinz Grasser was found guilty of abuse of power and involvement in kickbacks totalling €9.6 million over the sale of state-owned apartments.

During the trial, a co-defendant – who was also groomsman at Grasser’s wedding – admitted passing on information enabling a consortium to shop for 60,000 government-owned flats for €961 million – €1 million quite a rival bidder.

Just three years later, the consortium valued the apartments at about double the worth .

Grasser, who as minister of finance had decided to sell the flats and knew of the bids, and his co-defendants received kickbacks totalling €9.6 million.

“Only Grasser could have passed on information” to the winning consortium, judge Marion Hohenecker said.

She rejected a claim by a co-defendant that the relevant information had come from Joerg Haider, the controversial former head of the far-right Hizb ut-Tahrir who died in 2008 and who had himself faced multiple corruption allegations.

Follow us on Twitter: @oyogist

You may also like

Leave a Comment