The infidelity process surrounding the Vienna City Expansion Fund against four current and former top officials from the Ministry of the Interior begins to spin. The questioning of four representatives of beneficiary organizations on Wednesday morning did not answer the fundamental question of whether the donations were in accordance with the purpose of the fund.
After the appearances of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and ex-Interior Minister Maria Fekter (ÖVP) on the previous day, the former Raiffeisen banker Herbert Stepic was the most prominent information person on Wednesday. A charity organization he had founded and named after him had received 100,000 euros from the city expansion fund for an orphanage in Ukraine.
The then fund boss, the current defendant J., approached him and offered him the opportunity to receive a donation. J. looked “extremely socially oriented”, so he particularly liked the project in Ukraine, Stepic reported. Stepic did not really care whether the fund was allowed to give these funds to his organization: “You are not surprised, you are happy because you have another opportunity to do good.” He did not hear that – as alleged by the four defendants – the former interior minister Liese Prokop (ÖVP) had instructed the former emperor’s fund, which was actually devoted to beautifying the city center, to be liquidated and to do good with the means.
The former head of the Lion Club Ostarrichi, whose organization received € 50,000 for three church renovation projects, wants to have known about this very well. What is particularly piquant here is that the accused section head V. was vice-president and also designated president of the club at the time and Lion himself applied for the donation.
Basically, those projects for which controversial donations had been received were chewed through again in the morning. The defendants’ line of defense remained the same as in previous days. All donations were charitable or non-profit and the corresponding opportunity was given by the statutes, which they themselves had drawn up as a board of trustees.
Judge Claudia Moravec-Loidolt did not appear convinced in every case, for example when V. said that scientific societies depend on support. “But not necessarily from the city expansion fund,” replied Moravec-Loidolt dryly.
The judge then asked the accused whether there was any project that, according to their interpretation, was not legally compliant. V. would have ruled out party-political initiatives, Section Head H. Projects that would have benefited sex workers. However, a musical-educational project by an Albanian artist or a gift to the Mirno More Peace Fleet was very worthy of donation.
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