{"id":17904,"date":"2020-12-05T02:31:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-05T07:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=17904"},"modified":"2020-12-05T02:31:30","modified_gmt":"2020-12-05T07:31:30","slug":"austria-former-finance-minister-grasser-jailed-for-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2020\/12\/05\/austria-former-finance-minister-grasser-jailed-for-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria: Former finance minister Grasser jailed for corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p><b class=\"css-14iz86j-BoldText e5tfeyi0\">A former Austrian finance minister has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in a high-profile corruption scandal.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Karl-Heinz Grasser was found guilty on Friday of embezzlement, receiving bribes and falsification of evidence in a deal to sell thousands of publicly owned apartments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>The court in Vienna said Grasser was involved in kickbacks of more than \u20ac9 million (\u00a38.1m).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>He denies wrongdoing and will appeal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Grasser became the youngest finance minister in the country&#8217;s history in 2000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"unordered-list-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<div class=\"css-1pzprxn-BulletListContainer e5tfeyi3\">\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li><a class=\"css-yidnqd-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-52831018\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Honey-trap photos released in Austrian inquiry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"css-yidnqd-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-48378320\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mystery of the honey-trap video that shook Austria<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>The case involved 14 defendants facing an array of charges, which included money laundering, fraud and falsifying evidence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>The court said Grasser and a middleman passed on information about a bid during a scheme to privatise 60,000 apartments, which in turn enabled a rival to put in a slightly higher winning bid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>A consortium purchased the apartments for \u20ac961 million &#8211; three years later, they were valued at double that amount.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>According to the court, the winning bidders paid one per cent of the purchase price, \u20ac9.6 million, to ex-Freedom Party of Austria General Secretary Walter Meischberger and lobbyist Peter Hochegger.\u00a0<a class=\"css-yidnqd-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/orf.at\/stories\/3192404\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Both men were also handed prison sentences<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>This money was then divided into three bank accounts in Lichtenstein, the court found.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>The verdict was based on hundreds of witness statements along with tapped telephone calls, AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Judge Marion Hohenecker said: &#8220;Those who do business honestly do not need any accounts in Lichtenstein.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>She added that the winning bidder&#8217;s success &#8220;was achieved through bribery and was only possible\u00a0<a class=\"css-yidnqd-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-12-04\/ex-austrian-minister-grasser-found-guilty-in-corruption-case\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">because of the intentional abuse of authority<\/a>&#8221; by the former finance minister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"css-83cqas-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Grasser&#8217;s lawyer described the ruling as a &#8220;blatant misjudgement&#8221; and said an appeal would be placed with the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-55195397\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">A former Austrian finance minister has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in a high-profile corruption scandal. Karl-Heinz Grasser was found guilty on Friday of embezzlement, receiving bribes and falsification of <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2020\/12\/05\/austria-former-finance-minister-grasser-jailed-for-corruption\/\" title=\"Austria: Former finance minister Grasser jailed for corruption\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,6],"tags":[1256,6537,800,948,2662,7477,7476,6072],"class_list":{"0":"post-17904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-austria","11":"tag-austria-supreme-court","12":"tag-bribery","13":"tag-corruption","14":"tag-embezzlement","15":"tag-falsification-of-evidence","16":"tag-karl-heinz-grasser","17":"tag-vienna","18":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17906,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17904\/revisions\/17906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}