56-year-old in custody

How a dubious businessman swindled millions

With an inscrutable web of companies and plenty of tricks, a 56-year-old from Lower Austria swindled a veritable fortune over many years.

Years of intensive police investigations have now landed a 56-year-old from the district of Bruck an der Leitha in prison. The man and his network of companies in Wiener Neudorf have been responsible for 21 company bankruptcies since 2004 and defrauded other companies, suppliers, health insurance and social security funds of 6.8 million euros.

The man, who worked in the transport and construction industry, is accused, among other things, of not employing employees at all or employing them on a false basis and paying out additional benefits under the table. He created bogus invoices with bogus companies and developed a complex system in which he diverted costs and revenues to other companies.

Switched shortly before insolvency
To this end, he repeatedly founded and managed companies as a shareholder and replaced the managers with fictitious managing directors shortly before insolvency. "He did this dozens of times over the years," reports an investigator. But the handcuffs finally clicked at the beginning of June.