Interview with Grasser – Do you ever feel free again?

Only a few clouds clouded the sky over Salzburg when Karl-Heinz Grasser got out of his car late Friday afternoon with a Kitzbühel license plate and drove into the “Sacher”. “I love this beautiful place very much. I also celebrated my 15th wedding anniversary here two years ago,” he says later in the café of the legendary hotel with a view of the Salzach, Mönchsberg and the domes of the old town.

Behind him hang framed pictures of crowned heads and stars. The Queen of Jordan and Prince Charles, Grace Kelly and Hugh Grant, Pavarotti and Karajan. Grasser orders peppermint tea and espresso, there is a lightness in his voice.

“krone” The cabbie I told about our interview said, Whatever he did, it sucks how you ruined his career, his reputation, and his life. Does he speak to you from the soul?
Karl Heinz Grasser: Absolute. Apart from myself, it would be desirable for the Austrian constitutional state to at least draw lessons from the Buwog trial. After me, a process of 15 years can no longer be done to anyone. But today I am happy with the acquittal in the tax process. Justice at last.

A stage win?
There were more than 10 lawsuits against me in the witch hunt and these had to be stopped after many years. The current acquittal can of course only be a new stage victory. But for me personally it was a very important judgment, because I really had my doubts about whether I would still be able to experience justice and justice. This trial has shown me that experienced and objective judges get to the bottom of the truth and make the right decision.

After my bad experiences with the biased Buwog judge, I had a lot of doubts and sometimes when I couldn’t sleep I thought to myself: if I lost that too, I really don’t know if I would have made it mentally. Had I had the strength to stand up and say I’ll keep fighting!

Are people happy with you?
Yes, thank God, many congratulated me. Also companions like Wolfgang Bowl and Erich Proell. I really enjoyed that. But also many others with whom I had no contact for several years. Not many people are left of my former network. Especially no friends, I can count them on one hand today.

The court was unable to prove tax fraud involving Meinl’s investments. But then many small investors fell for their money. Do you regret?
Of course I’m sorry. But if you’re honest, you have to say that 2008 was one of the biggest financial crises of all time. It didn’t matter whether someone invested in Meinl, OMV or Voest, you lost at least 30 to 40 percent of the value of your shares.

It has now been 13 years since the prosecution opened an investigation against you and two years ago you were sentenced to eight years in prison, which is not final. But you sit across from me and smile.
I’m pretty good at denying and enduring now. The reason I can still smile is the incredible love and loyalty of my wife and family. She made me come to terms with myself. Such a long process is accompanied by enormous prejudice and great mental stress.

I now picture it this way: someone has a serious illness, but he gets used to it, learns to live with it and hopes for a cure.

In your trial there were numerous allegations, more than 100 witnesses, searches, opening accounts, etc. but also a large number of complaints and objections on your part. Have you or your lawyers also postponed the procedure?
No! Can I answer with the tax criminal procedure? It started in 2010. We announced everything right away. I have released my tax advisers from secrecy. So you can’t show more cooperation. In the end, it took another 12 years before he was acquitted. I have now come to the conclusion that there are people in the economic and corruption office as well as in the financial administration who abuse their power to achieve political and personal goals.

It cannot be a coincidence that Kurz, Blümel, Löger, Proell, Brandstetter etc. are being investigated. Any ÖVP politicians or people close to the party. Do you really think there is only right of center and nothing left of the political spectrum? I do not believe that.

You mean the same actors are now re-examining?
There are a few black sheep among the investigating authorities. And unfortunately, the control that is so important for the rule of law does not always work. This is the only way I can explain that a clearly biased judge, whose husband wants me to go to jail, was allowed to lead the Buwog case. This judge wanted to convict me from the start and completely ignored the evidence and 150 witnesses who clearly acquitted me.

In my view, the WKStA again had a clear political aim. Kurz was democratically elected, but in the end the WKStA forced him to resign. Many ÖVP representatives didn’t believe me when I spoke about political persecution and goal setting; their eyes have been opened in recent months.

Do you think ex-chancellor Kurz will be charged?
I can’t judge, but logically I don’t hope for him because I don’t want anyone to go through what I’ve been through.

How are you now? Are you afraid of still getting a prison sentence?
Of course I am not free from fear. Especially because in the end it is about nothing more and nothing less than my life. But given that a whole series of fundamental principles of the rule of law have been violated in the Buwog proceedings, I am convinced that the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court will not need the European Court of Justice to scrutinize the scandal verdict and annul it. emptiness.

How much has the legal process really cost so far?
Well over a million. That clearly led me to the abyss. I have lost my economic existence. Apart from the mental stress. What remains is an unbearably long process, which is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights. This is a legal-political scandal, however it ends.

What are you living on now?
From the last part of my savings. I’ve been blocked professionally for 13 years, I can’t plan anything. No one can probably imagine how difficult normal everyday life is. An example: I haven’t had a bank account for years. All the banks rejected me. Then I saw an advertisement from the Ministry of Social Affairs which stated: Everyone is entitled to an account. With this ad I went to a bank again. There is no criminal record in my criminal record because the Buwog verdict is not final.

So a citizen like any other. I was then billed, but for the first transfer, the person who transferred the money to me had to prove where it came from. A long story. But it goes to show that once a bomb hits your life, nothing will ever be the same. Then everything gets terribly complicated.

Do you ever feel free again?
That is a good question. I hope so, but when? At the beginning of 2023 we will appeal against the nullity. Then we go to the Constitutional Court and then to the Supreme Court. Decisions are expected sometime in 2024 or 2025. Then my trial has been running for 15 years and that is unworthy of a democracy and the rule of law and unacceptable.

You mentioned your wife in the beginning. Will she stand by you if you go to jail?
Please don’t let us speculate on that. These are very personal thoughts that I sometimes have in my sleepless nights. But I am deeply convinced that in the end I will be right and that one day I will be able to live an unencumbered life in freedom again, simply because I am innocent.

My best years have already been taken from me and I have served 13 years of prejudice and immense mental and economic need.

Made no mistakes?
Yes, quite a number. But what I have certainly not done is tax evasion or corrupt behavior. Absolutely nothing for which I should take criminal responsibility.

Do you sometimes wonder where you would be today if you could undo everything?
No, because it is my life and because I accept it as it is. Oscar Wilde said, “In the end everything will be fine. And if it’s not good, it’s not the end.”

Believe in life after death
I want to believe in it, just like my wife. She is a very spiritual person and opened up a whole new world for me. On the one hand the creative, artistic world, on the other the emotional, esoteric world. She sees a lot of things that I don’t.

Has your shared world become more personal?
Yes, because we have withdrawn very strongly from the audience. As Secretary of the Treasury I was exposed to this publicity for years and unfortunately I encouraged it because I saw it as part of my job to get out into the open. Today I often wish that I had better protected our privacy, our family and the children.