Far-right Austrian leader Joerg Haider secretly had £40 million in Liechtenstein

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telegraph

Far-right Austrian leader Joerg Haider secretly had £40 million in Liechtenstein

More than 45 million euros in undeclared cash belonging to Austria’s late far-right leader Joerg Haider has been found in the secretive European principality of Liechtenstein, according to reports.

Published: 6:20PM BST 01 Aug 2010

Prosecutors from Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein found 12 shell companies whose Liechtenstein bank accounts Haider had access to, Profil magazine reported. The accounts currently still have 5 million euros of deposits, it said.

The money was found in an investigation by Austrian and German authorities into the near-collapse of Austrian bank Hypo Group Alpe Adria, once owned by the Austrian region of Carinthia, which Haider governed until he died in a car crash in 2008.

Haider’s Carinthia and a group of mainly German and Austrian investors sold a majority stake in Hypo to Germany’s BayernLB in 2007 in a deal that ultimately proved disastrous. Hypo had to be nationalised last year to prevent a collapse.

Prosecutors are investigating whether former managers, shareholders and business partners of Hypo lined their pockets at the expense of both Hypo and BayernLB.



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/7921306/Far-right-Austrian-leader-Joerg-Haider-secretly-had-40-million-in-Liechtenstein.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. RWingnut / Millionaire thief....how unique.

[JDPriestly]

2. Libertarian type. Not really a libertarian but that general direction.

And of course, his political "beliefs" were just greed, greed, greed, greed and more greed. He didn't like foreigners -- unless they were taking good care of his loot in Liechtenstein.

[L0oniX]

3. Osama is in Liechtenstein too. We need to bomb that country.

[bread_and_roses]

4. Ashamed to admit it but I had no idea that Liechtenstein

was a real place - a "principality" - if pressed, I might have guessed it to be the name of a German or Swiss town or whatever the analogy to a "County" is in those States (Canton in Switzerland?).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein

... In February 2008, the country's LGT Bank was implicated in a tax-fraud scandal in Germany, which strained the ruling family's relationship with the German government. Crown Prince Alois has accused the German government of trafficking in stolen goods. This refers to its $7.3 million purchase of private banking information illegally offered by a former employee of LGT Group.<24><25> However, the United States Senate's subcommittee on tax haven banks said that the LGT bank, which is owned by the royal family, and on whose board they serve, "is a willing partner, and an aider and abettor to clients trying to evade taxes, dodge creditors or defy court orders."<26>

hmmmnnnn...even with all its flaws, I think I prefer this Liechtenstein:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Knight%27s_Tale_%28film%29

Although this bit over at Wiki is quite hilarious, given the Corp-o-cracy attributes of the real Liechtenstein:

Newsweek revealed in June 2001 that print ads for at least four movies released by Columbia Pictures, including A Knight's Tale and The Animal (2001), contained glowing comments from a film reviewer who did not exist. The fake critic, David Manning, was created by a Columbia employee who worked in the advertising department. "Manning" was misrepresented as a reviewer for a newspaper in a small Connecticut town.

[JDPriestly]

5. Drove into and out of Liechtenstein many years ago. You hardly realize

you are in an independent country, if I recall correctly.