In the Commerzialbank Mattersburg case, there are now the first charges from the Public Prosecution Service for Economic and Corruption (WKStA for short). The indictment, filed in the Eisenstadt Regional Court, targets three people for extortion and embezzlement. The latter is said to involve ex-bank boss Martin Pucher.
The damage amounts to 70,000 euros, the investigation against other suspects in the case is still ongoing, the WKStA announced on Tuesday. A former employee of the bank is said to have threatened to expose abuses at the bank when his employment was terminated in 2017. For his silence, he is said to have received 70,000 euros in cash from bank funds.
The transfer of the money, at the initiative of two board members – the WKStA does not mention names, but they are probably ex-boss Martin Pucher and fellow board member Franziska Klikovits – has caused damage to Commerzialbank, it is also said.
The sentence is a maximum of five years
The charges were filed after approval of a project report by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Vienna and the Ministry of Justice in accordance with the Instruction Council. Extortion carries a prison sentence of six months to five years; embezzlement carries a prison sentence of up to three years.
Whether the seriously ill Pucher is suitable for questioning is unclear and could not yet be clarified on Tuesday. For health reasons, he only appeared briefly at the investigative committee in Eisenstadt in February 2021.
Investigation against 39 suspects
In the Commerzialbank case complex, the WKStA, together with SOKO Commerz and the Federal Office for the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, is currently investigating 39 suspects, including eleven associations, for serious commercial fraud, breach of trust, fraudulent Krida, forgery of accounts, money laundering and various allegations of corruption.
Damage at least 600 million euros
In the main proceedings, 22 natural persons and ten associations are being investigated. In addition to the main procedure, a total of four other procedures are currently open. The act consists of 62 parts with 2200 serial numbers. 80 TB of data was secured, some of which is still under evaluation. The damage is expected to amount to at least 600 million euros.
After the investigations and some reports were completed, a project report was submitted to the OStA Vienna in July 2023 on a sub-area surrounding five suspects. Only after approval can information be provided about a possible outcome of the procedure. The investigation into the other factual areas is still ongoing. For example, the main report and the reports on sub-areas are still being processed.
Source: Krone
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