Causa Casinos: Peter Sidlos CV under the magnifying glass

According to the news magazine “profil”, the personnel consultants Sidlos do not see the activity at the listed conwert as leading as he portrayed it. Sidlo denies an uplift.

The ex-short-term executive at Casinos Austria, ex-FPÖ district politician Peter Sidlo, comes under the magnifying glass with the curriculum vitae he submitted when applying for the executive position. According to the news magazine “profil”, the personnel consultants Sidlos do not see the activity at the listed conwert as leading as he portrayed it. Sidlo says he hasn’t pretted anything up.

Sidlo noted under “success” that he was “jointly responsible for a capital increase of 413 million euros with the CEO”. The personnel consultants from Egon Zehnder, who spoke to him in the course of his application, did not see Sidlos leading the conwert capital increase, according to “profil”. On January 10, 2019, they had held a conversation with Sidlo in the course of his application to the casino board for several hours to carry out a “broad resume analysis” and an “analysis of management skills”.

Egon Zehnder Managing Director Raimund Steiner said in his testimony with the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) on November 27, 2019: “Regarding the capital increase at conwert that Mag Had a function and had no final lead function. I can no longer state what he did in practice. ” The following day, Egon Zehnder authorized officer Gerald Klenner testified: “Mag. Sidlo had pointed out his work at conwert, where he was involved in a capital increase and was responsible for the project. (…) I have his own information checked in a reference interview. It turned out that his focus was on creating prospectuses and communicating with investors. In my opinion, he coordinated the project, and we were unable to verify that the content was being managed. “

Hoschers 108 vacation days replaced with 651,207 euros

Sidlo himself sees his CV in no way polished. “I talked about this corporate action in an interview, my information was checked by Egon Zehnder, and I was ultimately certified by Egon Zehnder as having a high level of capital market expertise. It was not and is not necessary to preheat this area and it does not correspond to the facts,” he explains opposite “profil”. Sidlo is taking legal action against his dismissal as CFO of the casinos and is making claims of 2.3 million euros.

Sidlo was Head of Investor Relations (Group Communication) at the listed conwert, he did not have a board position.

The “Standard” reports on details from the casino’s internal audit report by the law firm Schima Mayer Starlinger and KPMG, which the casino board found no wrongdoing in the case of early redemptions and new orders. For example, the compensation for 108 days of vacation from ex-casino board Dietmar Hoscher with EUR 651,207 gross (EUR 6,030 per day) was legal. Hoscher will remain with the casinos until mid-2022, but has been released. That the vacation was paid out and not consumed was the result of the contract negotiations with Hoscher, the supervisory board had not committed any misconduct. The 300,000 euro report says: “Perhaps one could have negotiated a little harder here.” On the other hand, accepting the replacement service was “a sure way” to avoid litigation.

In the Postenschacher Causa surrounding Casinos Austria, the public prosecutor’s office also investigated suspicions of unfaithfulness. It is directed against the chairman of the supervisory board Walter Rothensteiner and two of his three deputies (Novomatic boss Harald Neumann, Leipnik-Lundenburger boss Josef Pröll). They all reject the allegation.

(APA)

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