The former Burgenland Provincial Councilor Christian Illedits (SPÖ) was questioned on Wednesday afternoon in the Commerzialbank-U-Committee. In his opening statement he said: “The commercial bank scandal, the criminal case, affected many people in the Mattersburg district and me.” Illedits did not allow photos.
The ex-state council said that years of control failure had caused this scandal of “unbelievable magnitude”. The background should also be clarified as a preventive measure. After many private fates are at stake, the goal must be to help savers get their lost money.
His relationship to the bank was more business-like than the mayor of Draßburg from 1997 and 2012: “During this time, we as a community had business accounts at the commercial bank.” In 1999 a loan was taken out for the construction of the tennis facility, which has now expired. As a private person, he had neither an account nor a savings account nor a loan with the institute. As a sports official and then as a member of the supervisory board at the Burgenland Football Academy, he knew ex-bank boss Martin Pucher and so there was regular contact.
“For my 60th birthday I received a private present from the SVM and the academy that I shouldn’t have accepted,” admitted Illedits. On August 1, 2020, he announced his resignation.
In the state government, he had no points of contact with the commercial bank. Although he was economic councilor after the state elections in the spring, he only learned that the bank’s revision was part of his agendas after the scandal became known. He had not received any test reports.
He did not notice any difficulties at the bank. He first heard of the disaster from Governor Hans Peter Doskozil (SPÖ), who informed the members of the state government. This conversation took place on July 14th in the late afternoon in the LH office. Doskozil informed her about the “criminal case” and the bank’s closure. He only heard about the whistleblower’s 2015 complaint after the scandal was exposed. He did not notice any hints that the bank was actually in poor condition: “No, I was slain when I received the information about how all of this happened.”
He informed the governor of the acceptance of the gold gift a few days before his resignation. He only determined the value of the gold plate in the course of the complaint. “Only then did I realize what I had really received and then I told the governor what kind of effects that had – which I could imagine myself.” Illedits assumed that he was not the only one who received such a gift: “I am and I was not that important.” He didn’t get the gold plate from the bank, but from the SVM and the academy. After an investigation against him in this matter, however, he will not say more, Illedits initially announced. He returned the gift through his lawyer.
When asked whether he was a football fanatic, Illedits answered in the affirmative. He is president of ASV Draßburg, but not operational. Illedits did not disclose information about the amount of the Novomatic subsidiary Admiral sponsoring ASV Draßburg, but referred to the confidentiality clause in the contract – which subsequently sparked a procedural debate.
The sponsorship of the Commerzialbank in turn for the ASV Draßburg was defined depending on the league. Illedits estimated that in the regional league it was once 60,000 euros and in the regional league 25,000 or 30,000 euros. The sponsorship of the sports clubs was transparent, explained Illedits. Pucher had precisely defined the gradations according to game classes. According to Illedits, he did not make any observations as to whether Pucher had distributed cash to football clubs.
Illedits reported to have been regular visitors to the SV Mattersburg games, also in the VIP area. And there he also met other political celebrities: “I think I hardly missed anyone there.” The SPÖ club had a season ticket that he had paid for himself and he was also given access to the VIP club as a supervisory board member of the football academy.
Small games of chance were also discussed in the survey. The aim of the then red-black state government was to curb or completely eliminate illegal slot machine games in order to ensure player protection. This law was passed jointly by the SPÖ and ÖVP. Illedits protested against a connection between the sponsorship of ASV Draßburg by Admiral and the law on small games of chance, he had recently emphasized this in the Ibiza committee of inquiry: “There is none.” He was never involved in the licensing.
At the end of the survey, it was still about the admission of Franz Lederer to the state service. The ÖVP wanted to know from Illedits whether the former sports director of the SVM had knocked on him for this, which Illedits denied.
Those: APA
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