Final indictment

Now final: Tyrol’s former head of the Chamber of Commerce must stand trial

Christoph Walser

(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

The indictment against Tyrol's former Chamber of Commerce President Christoph Walser (ÖVP), who is accused of tax evasion among other things, is legally binding. An appeal has been waived.

A spokeswoman for the Innsbruck public prosecutor's office told APA on Monday. In the preliminary proceedings, Walser had already confessed to tax evasion amounting to 1.1 million euros. He is also charged with defamation, falsification of evidence and giving false evidence.

No trial date yet
However, a trial date has not yet been set, said public prosecutor's spokeswoman Julia Klingenschmid. Two weeks ago, the public prosecutor's office announced the charges against 49-year-old Walser. The transport company owner had until Monday to lodge an objection.

This is what Walser's lawyer says
An objection was waived "for legal reasons", said the well-known Innsbruck defense lawyer Albert Heiss, who is representing Walser. A court should now clarify whether the relevant facts are present. However, he expected a trial date before the end of the year.

Explosive accusations against former WK boss
According to the public prosecutor's office, Walser allegedly faked operating expenses, failed to disclose income and paid wages "in the black". Specifically, the former Chamber of Commerce boss was accused of placing freight orders with a subcontractor, for example. He justified large cash withdrawals by saying that he had paid them in cash. During the investigations, however, Walser is said to have submitted "untruthful documents" to confirm these expenses. The authorities saw this as an offense of falsifying evidence.

Because Walser had also claimed that his dispatchers and a driver were responsible for these malversations and that he himself had known nothing about them, he was now charged with defamation and giving false evidence. In addition, the haulier allegedly failed to record some invoices in the accounts and transferred the invoice amounts "directly to a private account of the accused". The presumption of innocence applies.

Long prison sentence threatened
If convicted, Walser now faces a fine of up to 2.2 million euros for tax evasion and a prison sentence of up to five years for the other offenses. The public prosecutor's office has also requested a fine for the company.

After the investigations came to light in November of the previous year, Walser - a former ÖVP hope for the future - resigned from his positions in the Chamber of Commerce and as mayor of the municipality of Thaur in the Innsbruck-Land district. The rather publicity-conscious Walser said at the time that he had not always given his "role and responsibility as an entrepreneur the necessary space".