There was no evidence that the accused had misused their powers.
In the infidelity process surrounding the Vienna City Expansion Fund, the four accused – the former managing director and three section heads of the Ministry of the Interior, who had jointly formed the board of trustees – were acquitted in full by the Vienna Regional Court on Thursday. The court found that the incriminated allegation of knowingly using their powers was not to be proven.
The decision of the lay senate (chair: Claudia Moravec-Loidolt) is not final. The prosecutor made no statement for the time being.
The process involved an urban building fund that dates back to the imperial era. According to an imperial manuscript from 1857, Emperor Franz Josef I. determined at the time that old city walls in Vienna were to be torn down and the vacant space to be sold. A construction fund was to be established with the proceeds. The funds from the fund were used to finance magnificent buildings along Vienna’s Ringstrasse, such as the State Opera, the Burgtheater, the Parliament or the Art and Natural History Museum. During the Nazi era, the remaining funds were allocated to the municipality of Vienna, and after the war they returned to the fund. What exactly happened to the money afterwards was the subject of the process.
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