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The Vienna Criminal Court found Grasser guilty of breach of trust by helping a private investor to buy 600,000 apartments from the state at auction. He revealed to the investor what amount should be offered to beat the other bidders.
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The court concluded that the investor had transferred 9.6 million euros to several of Graser’s allies who had acted as intermediaries and consultants in the privatization process in 2004, which corresponds to 1% of the sale price of the apartments, which was 961 million euros.
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The indictment stated that Grasers had deposited 500,000 euros in cash in a bank in Austria. The prosecutor’s office has linked this deposit to investor payments.
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Testifying in court, Graser said he had asked for his money to be transferred from Switzerland to Austria by his wife. However, the court concluded that Graser’s version was unreliable and found him guilty of falsifying the evidence.
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Imprisonment sentences were also imposed on two of Graser’s allies and investment group managers.
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Grasers served as finance minister from 2000 to 2007. He used to be a member of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), but left the party in 2003.
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