Euram Bank bankruptcy: suspicion of breach of trust against three former board members

Accused notified

The major bankruptcy has developed into a crime thriller, and the investigation is now being led by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA). For a long time, only unknown perpetrators were investigated. As can now be seen from the files, the WKStA informed three former board members of the insolvent Euram Bank AG on April 17, 2026 that an investigation was underway against them as defendants on suspicion of breach of trust. They are suspected of having granted “economically unreasonable loans”.

“Whether there are other contributors is the subject of the investigation,” says senior public prosecutor Martin Ortner from the WKStA to the KURIER. “The damage is still under investigation, but it is estimated that the amount is in the eight-figure range.”

Lending business under scrutiny

The allegations are based on a 138-page audit report from the Austrian National Bank from November 2022, which was only supposed to have been available to the WKStA since the previous year. Six auditors examined the bank’s lending business on behalf of the Financial Market Authority (FMA).

The result: 28 defect findings, including one with the highest risk classification and 16 others with high priority. The auditors criticized the fact that loan applications “for the most part did not contain an adequate creditworthiness and creditworthiness check, despite often complex customer and financing structures”.

Loans were granted without appropriate risk analysis. In seven cases, no loan default was recorded despite the improbability of repayment – with an unpaid portion of 23.2 million euros.

Non-performing loans

Particularly critical: In three cases the statutory large loan limits were exceeded, in one case by more than 100 percent. The auditors examined 23 customers in 18 customer groups with a total loan volume of 102 million euros as of the end of 2021. The Federal Criminal Police Office, whose office for economic investigations was commissioned by the WKStA to carry out the investigations, assumes that “all of (these) credit lines became non-performing” and had to be written down.

“So far there have only been general allegations,” countered defense attorney Sebastian Lesigang, who represents one of the three board members, in an interview with the KURIER. “We are now waiting until there are concrete allegations about specific loans, only then can we comment on them.” Pilar Mayer-Koukol from the Paulitsch law firm, who represents another board member, sees it similarly.

“There are currently no concrete allegations against our client by the WKStA,” says Mayer-Koukol to the KURIER. “That remains to be seen and we will comment in due course.”

Inquiries from Russians

What is also unusual about this investigation is that countless Russian citizens and offshore companies contacted the WKStA with the help of Viennese law firms and requested access to the files because they apparently assumed that they would be listed as suspects or accused. The WKStA has so far rejected these requests because it is currently only investigating the three ex-bankers.