Eight years in prison for former Austrian finance minister

In Austria, former Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser has been sentenced to eight years in prison. He is guilty of corruption.

The court in Vienna considers it proven that in 2004 he favored an investor in the sale by the State of homes and other real estate. He was told what he had to offer to cut off another candidate.

The other candidate had offered 960 million euros. The real estate went to the investor with which Grasser and fourteen other suspects did business for 961 million. In exchange, he and the others together earned 9.6 million euros, 1 percent of the sale price. Other suspects have also been sentenced to long prison terms.

Grasser was Austrian Finance Minister from 2000 to 2007. He says he is innocent. For example, he would have received the 500,000 euros that he brought in cash to a bank from his mother-in-law in Switzerland. He’s likely to appeal.

–