“I have worked to the best of my knowledge and belief and I am not aware of any guilt,” says Siegmund Gruber, President of the Linz football club LASK, after the Johannes Kepler University in Linz revoked his doctorate. The JKU is thus following the results of the externally obtained reports from the ÖAWI (Austrian Agency for Scientific Integrity). But the last word has not yet been spoken.
In 2005, Siegmund Gruber submitted his 380-page dissertation entitled “Prerequisites and institutionalization of socio-economic cooperation for the prevention of money laundering” at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz with a co-author. In 2021, the well-known plagiarism hunter Stefan Weber published an expert opinion, in which he complained about “serious violations of the rules of good scientific practice”. His conclusion at the time: A “declaration of nullity of the assessment of the dissertation and the revocation of the doctorate” was necessary for him. The University of Linz now had the suspected case checked as well. “In the case of allegations of plagiarism, the Johannes Kepler University Linz attaches great importance to objective and transparent clarification, since the JKU does not tolerate plagiarism and scientific misconduct under any circumstances,” says the university Gruber initiated a multi-part examination procedure. Not yet legally binding. In the course of this, an external statement was also obtained from the ÖAWI (Austrian Agency for Scientific Integrity). The procedure has now been completed and provides for the revocation of Siegmund Gruber’s doctorate. The decision is not yet final. Siegmund Gruber, who “of course respects the opinion of the university”, can lodge a complaint with the Federal Administrative Court within four weeks and has already announced that he will do so.
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