Building ring scandal

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The unlawful and economically loss-making processes surrounding the activities of the municipal housing company Wiener Bauring in the mid-1970s, which resulted in a trial and a conviction for fraud, are described as the Vienna Bauring scandal .

procedure

The Wiener Bauring housing company, which was merged from five companies and is owned by the municipality of Vienna, carried out numerous construction projects in the Arab region despite a ban on the implementation of foreign projects. Serious management errors, corruption and fraud resulted in a debt level of 1.4 billion schillings (approx. 100 million euros) by 1973 instead of a planned increase of 700 million schillings.

enlightenment

Reports of the order in Austria specialized in uncovering political scandals journalist Alfred Worm in the profile set the foundation for its reputation as investigative journalist.

The trained civil engineer Worm was a municipal reporter for the city ​​of Vienna and was employed by a construction company when he came across the Vienna building ring scandal.

In June 1974 an extremely critical audit report by the City of Vienna's Control Office accused the two ex-directors of the Vienna building ring, Wawowetz and Zöllner, of having lost 550 million schillings through negligent conduct in Arabia deals. The report accused the chairman of the supervisory board, Suttner, of having paid too little attention to the business conduct of the Vienna building ring. Mayor Gratz promised to forward the report to the public prosecutor. Gratz categorically ruled out that partial returns of commissions paid in Arabia could have served to finance domestic political parties.

process

The process was characterized by mutual accusations, including on politicians. Ex-Mayor Felix Slavik , who was invited as a witness, and his successor Leopold Gratz, who was appointed to office in 1973, rejected responsibility, as did Reinhold Suttner, the chairman of the supervisory board, and the four managers.

The process ended on December 23, 1976 with acquittals for the managers, who were certified in the verdict with shocking ignorance and carelessness up to and including incompetence . Only one architect who tried to enrich himself by 60 million schillings through complicated series loan constructions was sentenced to several years in prison.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The "Bauring: Billion Grave in the Desert Sand , diepresse.com
  2. ↑ Extra service - Worm ums Herz  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.extradienst.at  
  3. ^ Profile conversation with Leopold Gratz, Profil (magazine) , June 27, 1974, page 12ff
  4. ↑ See also the case of the public prosecutor . arbeiter-zeitung.at. November 12, 1976. Retrieved June 21, 2011. and in summary, Hard sentence, and it goes on . arbeiter-zeitung.at. December 24, 1976. Retrieved June 21, 2011.

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