In June last year, the Public Prosecution Service for Economy and Corruption filed a complaint of money laundering against entrepreneurs and ex-Magna boss Siegfried Wolf together with ex-Magna manager Hubert Hödl. The defendants filed an objection – and were now vindicated before the Higher Regional Court of Graz.
As the Graz High Court announced on Friday, the indictment regarding the money laundering allegations was dismissed and the proceedings were even halted due to false evidence.
Accusation of money laundering
Wolf was accused of having acquired, taken over, owned, partly converted, partly transferred to another person and partly otherwise disposed of assets worth more than 6.8 million euros, which were the result of criminal activities. used, as well as the origin, location, sequence and movement were concealed and concealed, although the funds were originally said to have come from acts of breach of trust in Germany.
The starting point of the research was the purchase of the Eurofighter. Hödl also worked as a consultant for the defense company EADS outside the Magna Group – with Wolf’s permission. Companies, private foundations and trusts attributed to Hödl are said to have received the aforementioned 6.8 million euros for ‘identifying counter-transactions’.
Gold stashed in Switzerland?
Multimillionaire Wolf is said to have kept some of the money in Switzerland – in the form of gold. However, the Higher Regional Court recognized “a formal flaw in the indictment, as it does not contain all the necessary explanations and therefore does not justify the question of whether the people to whom the assets initially flowed were intentional perpetrators (contributors) to the crime. committed infidelity in Germany.”
Furthermore, “the facts regarding the question of the origin of the assets from criminal activities have not been clarified to the extent that a conviction of the defendants is obvious” – here further investigation is needed into the question of whether contaminated assets were commingled with legal assets in accounts.
By dismissing the charges on these counts, the main proceedings are ended and the investigation is reopened.
Case dropped due to false statement
As regards the proceedings for alleged false statements before the Eurofighter-U Committee, the Graz High Court very clearly decided that Wolf was in a “state of emergency”. There would also be insufficient incriminating evidence. The procedure was therefore stopped.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
