Day four in the corruption trial, it continues with the questioning of the accused: Tojner, Hemetsberger and Kerbler.
Day 4 in the corruption trial against the former Green politician Christoph Chorherr and nine entrepreneurs, including Michael Tojner, Günter Kerbler, Erwin Soravia and Rene Benko. You are accused of abuse of office, corruption or bribery through donations to a charitable association Chorherrs. The allegations are vehemently denied by the bank.
Judge Michael Tolstiuk continued the proceedings by questioning Michael Tojners. The questions are now being asked by Michael Rami, the defense attorney for the co-defendant investment banker Wilhelm Hemetsberger. Hemetsberger bought a finance company later renamed Ithuba from Tojner in 2008/09. That’s the name of the charitable school projects in South Africa for which Chorherr collected donations. The prosecutor wants to know more about Tojner, how Tojner and Hemetsberger got together. It was a coincidence, they met on a flight and that’s how we got talking. Now questioned lawyer Otto Dietrich, representative of Montana Tech, the group of Tojner. Tojner says that Montana Tech has nothing to do with real estate projects or the Heumarkt project.
Now the accused Willi Hemetsberger is being questioned. He pleads not guilty. He wants to give an opinion. “I would like to start by saying that I have nothing to do with real estate developments, either privately or professionally,” says Hemetsberger.
Hemetsberger explains the career of his wife and himself. At a birthday party, friends donated almost 50,000 euros to build a workshop for the Chorherrs project in South Africa. He flew to South Africa with Chorherr. He then thought about how he could do something for the project in the long term. In 2008 there was the Lehman crisis, he was assailed. He advised the public sector on the realignment of the Federal Financing Agency, the Financial Market Authority, etc. Then financial institutions approached him. He recruited people from his network and he needed a company with an office in Vienna. He met Tojner on a flight, Tojner told him that he had an office in downtown Vienna and a small finance company.
“I offered Tojner to buy the company from him and I took it over,” says Hemetsberger.
The company also wanted to take social responsibility. “My wife was in South Africa in the spring of 2009,” says the finance manager. His wife works in development aid. She was impressed by the project in South Africa. “I came up with the idea that we could rename the financial company Ithuba and pay a fee to the school,” Hemetsberger said. An average of 100,000 euros per year should be made available for ten years. Hemetsberger held a launch party for the company in the fall of 2009, and pictures were auctioned off. The proceeds went to the South Africa Club. Hemetsberger introduced Chorherr to the then Bank Austria board member Chernko. Bank Austria, where Hemetsberger used to work, has decided to become the main sponsor for a second school. Around 770,000 euros were donated.
“I’m sitting here today after five years, I can defend that I donated,” says Hemetsberger. “Of course, my company suffers from this.” Finally, he would like to state that Mr. Chorherr managed to get public authorities in South Africa to pay for the schools.
Mr. Chorherr presented the South Africa project as Hemetsberger sees it. In 2012, he bought the remaining shares in Ithuba from Tojner. Tojner left the Supervisory Board on February 21, 2013.
The Associate Judge asks Hemetsberger. He knew that the donations would arrive in South Africa, says Hemetsberger. He also addressed Rene Benko about the project. “I have nothing to do with Heumarkt,” says Hemetsberger. “I knew that from the media. I met Mr. Tojner twice a year, I think we talked about venture capital.” He wasn’t interested in the Heumarkt project.
Hemetsberger was repeatedly asked for donations by the association s2arch, which was in charge of the South Africa project, when the project ran out of money. “If the money runs out, we’ll be there,” says Hemetsberger. Loans were also granted to the project, which were later converted into donations.
A jury wants to know if Hemetsberger invested in real estate. “I invested in real estate in Dresden and Leipzig, in my holiday home,” says Hemetsberger. He was also an investor in a house on the Hoher Markt in Vienna.
Prosecutor asks Hemetsberger about Chorherr. He knew that Chorherr was a green councilor and that Maria Vassilakou was a councillor. “Have you never spoken to him about his work on the municipal council,” the prosecutor wants to know. Yes, he spoke to Chorherr about bike paths. The s2arch association was a processing agency for the South Africa project for Hemetsberger.
Hemetsberger, who was an investment banker at UniCredit Bank Austria for years, describes his business as a financial consulting firm. There are several companies in which he is involved, according to the prosecutor. “Ithuba Capital AG is my main job and the main source of revenue,” says Hemetsberger. Only the business plan had become outdated. He took over the company from Tojner and it has a license from the Financial Market Authority. “They had a few good people,” says Hemetsberger. He also invested in Tojner’s venture capital investment projects.
“I recommended the project in South Africa to Mr. Benko. We advised Mr. Benko in 2011,” says Hemetsberger. “He then decided to donate 100,000 euros. We usually showed photos from the school. The project in South Africa would not have turned out so well without Mr. Chorherr.”
“We are a small company and have a very good working atmosphere,” says Hemetsberger. “The sharks came to the international financial market and wanted advice. However, we decided to consult the public sector.”
“I had nothing to do with Heumarkt,” says Hemetsberger. The donations had not been agreed with Tojner either.
Hemetsberger’s lawyer Michael Rami is now showing Hemetsberger photos, including those from Hemetsberger’s 50th birthday in 2008, when Chorherr presented Hemetsberger with a short film about the school in South Africa. “I get the flight ticket and the donation for the wood workshop,” says Hemetsberger. “The guests donated around 38,000 euros, and I and my wife donated 12,000 euros.” The largest single donor was his friend Steven Heinz. A well-known photographer took further pictures of the South Africa project. Hemetsberger financed the project with the photo artist with 40,000 euros.
In October 2017, the lawyer Wolfgang List held a press conference about the alleged corruption in the Viennese Greens and Chorherr. Ex-banker Hemetsberger was also mentioned as the founder of a large hedge fund. Hemetsberger sued List and List lost the case. At the time, List also filed a complaint against those named, which triggered the pending proceedings by the WKStA in the first place.
It’s one of the two prosecutors’ turn again. He asks about the press conference by lawyer List. “Yes, did you know something was up,” says the prosecutor. Journalists called him days before, says Hemetsberger. He probably got in touch with Michael Tojner in the process. The public prosecutor presented various emails to Hemetsberger. “I sued Mr. List for revocation,” says Hemetsberger again. The aim was also for the media to report as little as possible about the false allegations. Tojner wrote in an email that something had to be done to restore Christoph Chorherr’s good reputation. “There have been discussions with me,” says Hemetsberger. But he couldn’t remember specifically.
The accused real estate developer Günter Kerbler has also pleaded not guilty. He describes his professional career. He used to work in a bank and got into the apartment building business in the mid-1980s. And I already had a small fortune back then. In 1991 he wanted to save the Arbeiterzeitung, which cost him 50 million schillings. He also financed the moth. Chorherr moved into his neighborhood in 1985, in the late 1990s he took conwert-Immobilien AG public and worked day in, day out. In 2007 and 2008 he had two heart attacks and had heart surgery. In 2010/2011/2012 he slipped into a depression, after which he only appeared as an investor. In 2014, Chorherr approached him and told him about the school in South Africa. That the City of Vienna and Bank Austria are sponsoring. He said money was needed for teachers’ salaries. Kerbler donated three times. In total, Kerbler paid 100,000 euros.
“When did you hear from Chorherr about the Ithuba project?” asked the judge. That was in 2010, from Chorherr’s wife, who runs a school that Kerbler also supports. “I was there in South Africa and looked at it together with Chorherr,” says Kerbler. He was enthusiastic about the project. “I didn’t think that the choirmaster was a minister,” says Kerbler. He had no contact with other representatives of the s2arch association. Today he no longer knows whether he used the donations for tax purposes.
“The donations came from my private pocket,” says Kerbler. “As a friend, Chorherr asked him if he could support the project.” He discussed architecture with Chorherr. He did not speak to Chorherr about the wooden high-rise in Vienna’s Seestadt. “I didn’t need him,” says Kerbler.