The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the bankruptcy of the former Meinl Bank. The corruption prosecutor’s office is targeting twelve former executives of the bank, including the former chairman of the supervisory board and “de facto decision-maker” Julius Lindbergh Meinl V, as well as the bank’s former CEO, Peter Weinzierl. The accused face charges of breach of trust, embezzlement, and fraudulent bankruptcy. According to official estimates, the total alleged damages amount to approximately 150 million euros.
Image of the Meinl am Graben store at Graben in Vienna's first district Innere Stadt. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons; Gryffindor, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)
Meinl Bank, which was renamed Anglo Austrian Bank (AAB) in 2019, lost its banking license that same year and ultimately went bankrupt in 2020. Following the bankruptcy, meticulous investigations by the bankruptcy trustee Georg Freimüller and attorney Richard Soyer uncovered concrete evidence of suspicious financial flows in the years immediately preceding the collapse, as reported by “Der Standard.”
The allegations are serious. The former executives are accused of deliberately depleting the bank’s assets, misappropriating them, and thereby removing them from the reach of creditors. Among the key points of the allegations are questionable business practices. Approximately 26 million euros are said to have flowed to Julius L. Meinl or consulting firms associated with him without any corresponding consideration. In addition, travel expenses for a private jet were covered without verifying whether there was a business justification. Furthermore, company shares in the bank’s lucrative coffee business are alleged to have been sold for an estimated 23 million euros below their actual value. Loans and overdrafts that were not economically justifiable were also reportedly granted to foreign companies affiliated with the bank.
Assets and securities totaling up to 80 million euros are alleged to have been embezzled from the former subsidiary Meinl Bank Antigua. To manipulate the balance sheet, worthless or high-risk loan receivables were reportedly transferred to the subsidiary.
Seizure of Real Estate and Transfer of Assets
The personal assets of Julius Meinl, who now lives in the Czech Republic, are also under scrutiny by judicial authorities. There is suspicion that, in light of impending claims amounting to millions, he has set aside personal assets—such as real estate and company shares—by transferring them to relatives or shifting them to companies affiliated with him.
At the request of the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA), the Vienna Regional Criminal Court has already ordered the seizure of several properties that were registered in the land registry. These include, among others, a luxury villa in Vienna’s Döbling district—which is alleged to have been transferred via a Czech company—as well as a plot of land in Styria.
International Network and Confession in the U.S.
A 600-page expert report by a financial expert forms the basis of the authorities’ investigation. The investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and foreign authorities via requests for mutual legal assistance.
Findings for the Vienna proceedings stem, among other sources, from investigations into the global corruption scandal involving the Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht. Co-defendant and former bank CEO Peter Weinzierl is currently detained in the U.S., where he faces up to five years in prison for illegal transactions carried out through Meinl Bank’s structures. Weinzierl has made a confession in the U.S. and is cooperating with U.S. authorities.
All defendants are presumed innocent until a final conviction is handed down.