Karl-Heinz Grasser Files for Personal Bankruptcy
He filed a request for a debt settlement procedure at the district court in Kitzbühel on Wednesday, as reported by the Credit Protection Association of 1870 (KSV).
The Background of Karl-Heinz Grasser
Grasser was legally convicted by the Supreme Court (OGH) at the end of March and must serve four years in prison. Together with Walter Meischberger, he must pay 9.8 million euros in damages to the Republic of Austria.
The court is now examining whether the conditions for insolvency are met. As the KSV further explained, no additional information is available at this time. The Alpine Creditors Association (AKV) expects an opening in the coming days and anticipates that due to the complexity, an insolvency administrator will be appointed.
For liabilities "arising from a deliberately committed unlawful act," Austrian insolvency law provides a special regulation. These debts remain in effect even after income has been garnished to the subsistence level for three or five years as part of a garnishment procedure. This means Grasser will only be relieved of the 9.8 million euros in damages he owes to the Republic if he agrees on a payment plan with the Financial Procurator's Office, as AKV insolvency expert Cornelia Wesenauer told APA.
Grasser's lawyer Manfred Ainedter told APA that due to the long duration of the proceedings, Grasser had no income and high costs, leaving him with no other option. Grasser was the main defendant in the so-called Buwog case and was convicted of breach of trust and accepting gifts. The largest corruption trial of the Second Republic involved, among other things, the sale of 60,000 federal apartments to Immofinanz in 2004. The losing bidder CA Immo had offered just 1 million euros less for the apartments. It only became apparent a few years later that the privatization might have been rigged when it was revealed that two of Grasser's friends - the former lobbyists Walter Meischberger and Peter Hochegger - received 9.6 million euros in commissions.
(APA/Red.)
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