Threat of long imprisonment

Indictment against former WK President Christoph Walser

The former President of the Chamber of Commerce, Christoph Walser, is being charged.

(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

A bang in Innsbruck! Charges have been brought against the former President of the Tyrolean Chamber of Commerce, Christoph Walser. He is accused of several offenses. It concerns evaded taxes and duties of over one million euros. He faces a long prison sentence.

The public prosecutor's office in Innsbruck has brought charges against former WK President Christoph Walser. In addition to tax evasion, Walser is also accused of defamation, falsification of evidence and giving false evidence. This was announced by the public prosecutor's office on Monday.

Income not disclosed
Specifically, Walser is accused of evading VAT, income tax and corporation tax for his company, which was initially run as a sole proprietorship and later as a limited company. On the one hand, he is said to have "faked operating expenses and, on the other, failed to disclose income", according to public prosecutor Hansjörg Mayr in a press release.

He is also alleged to have paid out wages in the black and thus failed to pay payroll taxes. "According to the investigations, it can be assumed that taxes and duties in excess of 1.1 million euros were evaded", the statement continues.

Among other things, the accused justified large cash withdrawals by claiming that he had passed on some of the freight orders to a subcontractor and paid them in cash.

Die Staatsanwaltschaft

Several ways of deception
According to the public prosecutor's office, initial findings indicate that Walser faked operational expenses in various ways. "Among other things, the defendant justified large cash withdrawals by saying that he had passed on some of the freight orders to a subcontractor and paid them in cash." In the tax audit proceedings, he submitted untruthful documents that were supposed to confirm these expenses. He is now accused of this as an offense of falsifying evidence.

Because of these allegations, the defendant is now also charged with defamation and giving false evidence.

Staatsanwalt Hansjörg Mayr

During the public prosecutor's investigation, Walser claimed that it was not him but his dispatchers and a driver who were responsible for this irregularity. He himself had known nothing about it. "Because of these allegations, the defendant has now also been charged with defamation and giving false evidence," Mayr explains. In addition, some invoices were not recorded in the accounts and invoice amounts were paid directly to a private account of the accused.

According to his lawyer Heiss, his client had already confessed to tax and duty evasion in the preliminary proceedings. According to the APA, the well-known Innsbruck defense lawyer first wanted to examine the other charges and a possible objection to them: "I will first look at whether the allegations are legally tenable or not."

Long prison sentence looms
Walser now faces a prison sentence of up to five years. The public prosecutor's office has also applied to impose an association fine on Transport GmbH. "An appeal against the charges can still be lodged within 14 days. A trial date before the court of lay assessors has therefore not yet been set", the statement concludes.