Börse Express – “profile”: According to Löger, Strache spoke to Novomatic owner Graf

Statement by the ex-finance minister in the Casinos / Löger case discussed Sidlo’s order with Graf privately / Graf mentioned contact with Strache

Vienna (OTS) – As the news magazine “profil” reports in its current issue, the former finance minister Hartwig Löger made explosive statements in the casino affair to the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA). On December 11, 2019, Löger was questioned as the suspect and asked, among other things, for a note that the investigators discovered on the cell phone of casino supervisory board chairman Walter Rothensteiner. It said, among other things: “190201 Löger – conferred with Graf, he has some background deal with the blue ones. So Sidlo is a must. “
As Löger stated at the WKStA, he actually had a meeting in the Novomatic Forum in Vienna the day before, on January 31, 2019, where a two-person conversation with Novomatic sole shareholder Johann Graf had taken place. Löger and Graf also spoke about the application of the longstanding FPÖ district council Peter Sidlo as board member of Casinos Austria AG (Casag). Löger said that he wanted to use the Graf appointment to question whether Sidlo was just a proposal from the then Novomatic CEO Harald Neumann or an official Novomatic proposal. The former finance minister put it on record: “In this context, Graf described that it is that Mag. Neumann knows or has got to know Mag. Sidlo, … that Mag. Neumann has had a very positive description of Mag. Sidlo, Aspect of his qualification as a finance professional. At the same time he mentioned … that he also had a conversation with the Minister of Sport Strache and that Strache had given him a positive comment. By saying that Mag. Sidlo was a young, clever, committed man, it was clear to me that Graf and Novomatic wanted to propose Mag. Sidlo as a board member. “
Löger testified that the information that Graf had been in contact with Strache was passed on to Rothensteiner in a telephone call that followed immediately. The ex-finance minister stated that he could not remember whether the formulation of a “background deal” came from himself. Löger says of the sentence “Sidlo is a must”: “Mag. Sidlo cannot be a “must.” Sidlo was a suggestion. “But I would not have the basis for saying Mag. Sidlo must now, because there is still an order system behind it.” As Rothensteiner “formulated such a file note from, it is partly not entirely right for me Meaning of the further information I gave him ”. Casino licenses were not an issue in the four-eye conversation with Graf.
The WKStA suspects that there was a banned “FPÖ-Novomatic-Deal”, which provided Novomatic’s support with regulatory gambling issues in return for benefits, such as Sidlos’s appointment to the Casag board. All those affected deny all allegations.

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