The political fuss surrounding the granting of rescue loans for Wien Energie in the summer of 2022 was great. Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) in particular was accused of abusing his powers. The Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) began investigations shortly afterwards – which have now been discontinued.
From dubious speculation surrounding energy prices to a committee of inquiry, critics railed against Ludwig and the SPÖ in particular. Towards the end of the previous summer, the mayor made emergency loans available to Wien Energie without informing the local council and the coalition partner. It was unclear who was being investigated. Several reports were subsequently received in the case. However, according to the WKStA, the suspicion of breach of trust or negligent impairment of creditors’ interests has not been substantiated. A spokeswoman reported on Thursday that the proceedings were discontinued “due to a lack of evidence of crime-prone actions” or because there was no evidence of abuse of authority. It was not announced who exactly was being investigated. It was said that it was an association, a person known by name and unknown perpetrators. Loans not drawn down or already repaid Wien Energie had to deposit high security deposits for exchange trading in electricity and gas as a result of the price jumps and was no longer able to do so from the summer of 2022 raise on your own. The city initially provided a total of 1.4 billion euros. The liquidity bottleneck became public at the end of August last year, when these funds also became scarce. As a result, the federal government granted a further two billion euros via the Federal Financing Agency (OeBFA). The Vienna loan has now been repaid, but the federal loan is not needed. The incidents are currently being examined by a local council investigative commission. A final report from the committee is to be decided in October.
source site-12