In search of guilty parties and omissions in the balance sheet scandal at the commercial bank Mattersburg, which was closed yesterday, the first calls for damages were made on Thursday. The Viennese investor lawyer Ingo Kapsch questions the role of the auditor. And as a result possible liability claims. In the event of misconduct, this would amount to several million euros per annual financial statement.
Mattersburger Bank was audited by the TPA from 2006 to 2018. The accounting firm said on Wednesday that it had been the victim of deception and obvious fraud in the Commerzialbank case. TPA is in the middle of an internal investigation and is examining a complaint against the bank managers. This is the subject of ongoing discussions, the firm said on Thursday.
The investor lawyer Kapsch does not want to be satisfied with this. In the case of criminal proceedings in the Causa Commerzialbank – as in previous banking and investor affairs – he would join an investigation as a private party on behalf of the customer. He already had inquiries about it, he reported Thursday at noon.
At Mattersburger Bank or its long-serving boss Martin Pucher, who has been out of office since Tuesday, there is suspicion of falsification of the balance sheet and unfaithfulness.
The financial market regulator closed the bank overnight and sent a statement of the facts to the economic and corruption prosecutor yesterday, Wednesday.
Fictitious loans and credits
Since then, there has been talk of invented fantasy credits and faked credits. In the worst case scenario, it should be worth several hundred million euros. It is the presumption of innocence.
Pucher has also shown himself, the content of the ad is not known. His lawyer Norbert Wess spoke in the ORF midday journal today that it was said that due to the ever stricter capital requirements for balance sheets there had been incorrect information.
Investor lawyer Kapsch wants to know how it all went unnoticed for so long. If there is any suspicion that the alleged bank balances do not exist at all, the question has to be asked as to how far the auditors have fulfilled their obligation to voluntarily request bank confirmations from the other institutions concerned. Auditors would be obliged to do this.
Anyone who has deposited more money with the Commerzialbank Mattersburg than the 100,000 Euro secured deposit must fundamentally register their claims in an upcoming bankruptcy procedure. At Mattersburg-Bank it will probably be a bankruptcy, the bank is not relevant enough to process it in the financial system.
According to the latest reports, the bank recently had around 13,500 active customers, there should be a total of around 60,000 account relationships. (apa / kle)
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