Vienna prosecutors charged nine people yesterday, including the deputy governor of the Austrian National Bank, over suspected bribes in banknote contracts with Azerbaijan and Syria.
Wolfgang Duchatczek, 63, and the other suspects face charges of abetting breach of trust, bribery, money laundering and other crimes, prosecutors said.
The central bank said its supervisory board would meet on Tuesday to discuss it.
Duchatczek, who is chairman of the central bank’s banknote printing unit, was not available for comment, but his lawyer, Gabriel Lansky, said the charges were baseless.
“The entire indictment sheet contains not a single bit of evidence that would incriminate Duchatczek,” he said, adding it was his client who had launched the investigation that brought the irregularities to light. The central bank has said in the past that no members of the banknote unit’s supervisory board were aware of any wrongdoing.
Duchatczek is set to leave office on July 11 as his term expires.
Prosecutors said an 18-month investigation had determined that the banknote unit and in some cases also the mint unit had agreed contracts for making banknotes and coins with Azerbaijan and Syria between June 2005 and June 2011.
“Officials of the national banks of Azerbaijan and Syria were assured 20 per cent and 14pc, respectively, of the order volume as compensation for awarding the contracts to (the banknote unit),” the statement said.
In all the people placing orders got back 14 million euros in kickbacks via foreign accounts set up in offshore companies, prosecutors said.
This article originally appeared on gulf
