Charges filed against former bank auditor

The Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) has filed charges against a former employee of the department in the Commerzialbank case Bank audit the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) raised. The accusation: Violation of official secrecy. According to the WKStA, a corresponding criminal complaint was submitted to the Korneuburg regional court. The suspect is apparently supposed to be carrying out illegal activities among bankers through his actions Martin Pucher de facto supported within the bank.

“According to the indictment, the OeNB employee repeatedly informed the CEO and other employees of Commerzialbank Mattersburg about upcoming bank audits by the Austrian National Bank before officially informing them illegally informed“, as well as the likely specific topics of the bank audit,” says a WKStA release. “Through this one Betrayal of secrets “The defendant warned the CEO in advance and enabled a longer preparation period than required by law and targeted preparation for the test topics.”

And it goes on to say: “This made the work of the banking auditors during the on-site audits considerably more difficult and thus massively restricted the correctness and effectiveness of the bank audits and banking supervision with regard to Commerzialbank. This applies to the audits in 2015, 2017 and 2020 and thus all audits during this period up to the bank’s insolvency.”

Threatening the suspect up to three years in prison. However, further allegations against the defendant have been dropped.