Former Austrian finance minister Grasser handed four-year prison term

Mar 25, 2025 - 15:49

Former Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser speaks to the media, next to his lawyers Manfred Ainedter and Norbert Wess, on the day he appears before the high court in Vienna, Austria, March 25, 2025.REUTERS/Lisa Leutner - Source: REUTERS

Austria's top court on Tuesday sentenced former Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser to four years in prison, dismissing his appeal against his 2020 conviction on corruption charges.

Austria's Supreme Court upheld allegations of corruption raised against Grasser but halved the original sentence of eight years handed down against the former political star.

In 2020, a lower court found Grasser guilty of fraud, accepting illicit gifts and falsifying evidence, in a scandal centring on the privatisation of thousands of state-owned homes. Grasser has always denied the charges.

That verdict had not been legally binding pending appeal.

Grasser, 56, who was Austria's finance minister between 2000 and 2007, was once a darling of the political right in the country, and is married to an heiress of the Swarovski family.

Source: Reuters