Austria’s Financial Market Authority FMA strongly repudiates repeated allegations made by representatives of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), saying that the FMA had looked into loans taken out by the SPÖ for party-political reasons. Furthermore, the FMA vehemently denies the allegation that it forwarded any data it collated to the media. The two media reports (printed in the daily “Österreich” on September 1, 2006 and the daily “Kleine Zeitung” on September 14, 2006) repeatedly cited by SPÖ politicians refer to “BAWAG board meeting minutes” (“Österreich”) as well as “according to the credit application” (“Kleine Zeitung”) as their sources. “Kleine Zeitung” even printed parts of the credit application. Neither of the two cited sources is available to the FMA.
The retrieval of information from the Major Loans Register regarding the SPÖ’s credit terms was done due to substantial indications that BAWAG funds had been used for kickback payments to the SPÖ. However, the investigation did not confirm these indications.
“We appreciate that these allegations were submitted to the public prosecutor’s office in a statement of fact,” say FMA Executive Directors Kurt Pribil and Heinrich Traumüller. “Investigations conducted by the independent judiciary can only confirm that these allegations, which were politically motivated, are completely unsubstantiated.”
For further information please contact
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0676)/882 49 516