Austria bankers convicted
Fraud trial: Ex bank director-general Helmut Elsner arrives for trial in Vienna on fraud and betrayal of confidence. Picture: AFP
Saturday, July 5, 2008
IN ONE of the biggest-ever legal cases in Austria, a court yesterday convicted the former chief executive of BAWAG bank and eight others of gambling away €1.72 billion in speculative investments.
The scandal, which came to light in 2006, reverberated way beyond Austria's banking sector because it financially weakened BAWAG's former owners, the Austrian trade union federation OeGB.
Given the OeGB's proximity to the Social Democrats, the conservative OeVP party attempted to use the scandal in the 2006 general election, ultimately to no avail.
Former Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, ex-finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser and even European Central Bank executive board member Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell were all called to the witness stand during the mammoth year-long trial. In all, 104 witnesses were heard in a total 116 court sessions.
Reaching her verdict yesterday, Judge Claudia Bandion-Ortner found BAWAG's former chief executive Helmut Elsner, 73, guilty of fraud, breach of trust and falsification of accounts.AFP
The scandal, which came to light in 2006, reverberated way beyond Austria's banking sector because it financially weakened BAWAG's former owners, the Austrian trade union federation OeGB.
Given the OeGB's proximity to the Social Democrats, the conservative OeVP party attempted to use the scandal in the 2006 general election, ultimately to no avail.
Former Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, ex-finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser and even European Central Bank executive board member Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell were all called to the witness stand during the mammoth year-long trial. In all, 104 witnesses were heard in a total 116 court sessions.
Reaching her verdict yesterday, Judge Claudia Bandion-Ortner found BAWAG's former chief executive Helmut Elsner, 73, guilty of fraud, breach of trust and falsification of accounts.AFP
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