Enlarge image
Department store investor René Benko: »The charges have no substance«
Photo:
Marcel Kusch / dpa
The Austrian department store investor René Benko has been acquitted along with nine other defendants in Vienna of charges of political corruption.
The jury concluded Monday that there was insufficient evidence.
According to the prosecution, a former Vienna municipal councilor accepted donations for a school project in South Africa from several prominent real estate entrepreneurs and managers and in return supported their real estate projects.
Overall, the co-defendants had supported the aid project run by the municipal councilor Christoph Chorherr (Greens) with around 1.6 million euros.
Companies from Benkos Signa Holding, which now also owns the department store group Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, donated 100,000 euros in 2011.
The corruption prosecutor accused Chorherr of bribery and abuse of office, the nine donors of bribery and incitement to abuse of office.
All of the defendants had denied the allegations.
Her lawyers argued that charitable donations are part of modern corporate culture.
Benko and some other defendants testified that they did not know Chorherr personally and that the politician was involved in the project in South Africa.
They denied any connection between the payments and the real estate projects.
"The accusation had no substance, the allegations were false and unfounded from the start," Benko said through a spokesman.
It was a "very fair evidential process".
"That settles the matter for me," he said.
sol/dpa
