Three of Austria’s most powerful property players have been charged with bribing a politician to secure building permissions.
Billionaire property developers Rene Benko, Michael Tojner and Erwin Soravia were among 12 individuals named in a criminal indictment filed by prosecutors on Wednesday.
The Austrian state prosecutor for economic crimes and corruption, WKStA, accuses the individuals – some of central Europe’s most prominent and politically well-connected entrepreneurs – of bribery and abuse of office.
The WKStA’s indictment states that property developers made more than €1.7m in donations to an Austrian-South African educational charity, S2Arch, founded and run by the Austrian Green Party’s Christoph Chorherr, in exchange for political favours.
The indictment also names 21 companies, including Benko’s Signa Group, the joint owner of the Chrysler Building in New York, and calls for hefty corporate fines against them for facilitating the alleged scheme.
The WKStA alleges that Chorherr intervened to secure positive outcomes on planning decisions on at least 15 major property developments in Vienna on behalf of donors to his charity.
