Millions of black money – Pongauer Bank now has to pay 100,000 euros fine

The cause of a host family in Flachau and their accrued 3.5 million euros in black money has an expensive aftermath for the Raiffeisenbank Altenmarkt-Flachau-Eben. The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (FMA) has sentenced Pongauer Bank to a fine of 100,000 euros. The reason for this are two violations “of the duty of care to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing” in connection with the enormous black money case.

“In one specific case, the Raiffeisenbank Altenmarkt-Flachau-Eben has failed to reclassify the affected business relationships to the ‘high’ risk class and to report suspected money laundering,” the letter from the FMA said.

Accelerated procedure
Because, as reported, the restaurateurs had put about 2.8 million euros of their black money into 206 savings accounts and 780,000 euros in cash were also found during searches in 2019. The sentencing order is already final. There is a reason for this, says Martin Kundegraber, director of Raiffeisenbank Altenmarkt-Flachau-Eben.

“We have agreed not to appeal,” said the Krone banker. An accelerated procedure was chosen to be able to close the cause. The case has already been dealt with internally. “We are now set up in such a way that mistakes can no longer happen,” assures Kundegraber.

Savings accounts created several decades ago
The investment of the savings accounts goes back decades – at that time the “ordinary status” was different. At some point, the old stock has probably been overlooked, Kundegraber explains.

The après-ski host from Pongau and his mother had to answer to the Salzburg court in August 2021: As reported, the restaurant owner was eventually convicted of tax evasion of about 3.2 million euros.