The soon to be 58-year-old, who until then had vehemently denied payment flows from Alcatel-Lucent Austria AG totaling 244,800 euros to ex-lobbyist Peter Hochegger, assumed criminal responsibility after a lunch break. His procedure was then settled diversionally.
11,500 euros fine
After being instructed by judge Marion Hohenecker, Himmer agreed to pay a fine of 11,500 euros. In return, the charge against him will be shelved for the time being. As soon as the fine has arrived in the account of the judiciary, the criminal case would finally be settled for the ÖVP politician in the event of legal force. Himmer would continue to be considered as having no criminal record. Public prosecutor Bernhard Löw agreed with this procedure – the prosecutor himself had paved the way for it by making a diversion palatable to Himmer in his opening speech.
“Should Himmer take responsibility, that would be a classic case of diversion from the point of view of the public prosecutor,” Löw said at the beginning of the day of the trial. The facts brought against the indictment were 15 years ago, since then Himmer has behaved well and has not been blamed in court. A diversion “would make things easier. But nobody should admit to something they didn’t do,” said Loew.
Hochegger and Fischer also accused
Ex-lobbyist Peter Hochegger and former Telekom Austria board member Rudolf Fischer were also accused of involvement in the infidelity. The latter was acquitted, while Hochegger was convicted as charged, but with a sentence of up to three years, the jury refrained from imposing an additional sentence. Because with Hochegger, a judgment from August 2016 had to be taken into account, when he had suspended two years of partially conditional payments from Telekom to the BZÖ in connection with “sham invoices”. The six-year prison sentence that Hochegger imposed almost two years ago in the Buwog trial against ex-Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser & Co, like all of today’s decisions, is not final.
Since the criminal case has to be reported, the public prosecutor’s office in Vienna, as an authority bound by instructions, formally requires the approval of the higher authorities for the diversion, with which Himmer was able to leave the courthouse. However, it can be assumed that the responsible public prosecutor should have coordinated his approach with the higher authorities in advance. Public prosecutor Löw initially gave no explanation for the acquittal of Fischer and the Hochegger verdict. Hochegger’s defender Leonhard Kregcjk asked for time to think.
Abuse of powers, damage to companies
The prosecution accused the former “bonze tormentor” Harald Himmer – he had campaigned for votes in the 1990 National Council election with the slogan “Torch bigwigs, vote for Himmer” – for abusing his powers at the end of 2007/beginning of 2008 as manager of Alcatel-Lucent Austria AG and have damaged the company’s assets. “In the light of the prosecutor’s statements, I’m thinking about taking on a certain responsibility,” Himmer said on Monday afternoon, changing his previously unacknowledged responsibility. He and Telekom Austria CEO Rudolf Fischer agreed to use the services of lobbyist Peter Hochegger to push PR for the use of fiber optics in the broadband area: “Hochegger was a respected personality at the time, so it all makes perfect sense to me appeared.” “Joint marketing tools” from both companies were used, and he commissioned two studies from Hochegger’s Valora AG.
He was less concerned with the studies themselves than with Hochegger’s lobbying skills. Himmer explained that it was generally known that he was successfully intervening with authorities and government parties: “My understanding was that part of his achievements are reflected in this and the studies are a guideline for the subject areas for which he is commissioned.”
“Small mistake with big effect”
He sees that this was not correct: “You can also make a small mistake with a big impact. I don’t want to downplay it because it was about a relevant amount of money.” With his actions, however, he “didn’t circumvent any structures,” emphasized the ex-Alcatel board. “We certainly could have mapped that more precisely,” he admitted.
Himmer firmly denied that there had been a three-way meeting between Fischer and Hochegger in Vienna’s Hotel Intercontinental, as Hochegger had claimed: “Not a hundred million percent, as Otto Baric would say.” The ÖVP Federal Council assured that he personally did not receive any money from the incriminated payment flows.
According to the indictment, Himmer suggested that Hochegger’s company Valora AG could issue “sham invoices” for services allegedly rendered, which would be paid from the existing budget for training courses, seminars and studies on new product developments. In fact, Valora subsequently produced a “study on the investigation of the market environment of Telekom Austria” and a “study on potential improvements in the investment climate in the fixed-line sector”, “which were of no value”, as the presiding judge concluded at the end. Fischer was accused of having confirmed the value of the studies, but the jury found no evidence of this.
Studies for more than 250,000 euros
However, Alcatel paid EUR 127,200 for the first study on December 28, 2007 and EUR 117,600 for the second on June 12, 2008. According to the prosecution, Himmer and Fischer each received EUR 35,000 before tax and Hochegger EUR 36,000 from the fee for the first study.
Hochegger confirmed this in his interrogation of the accused and put the value of the two studies at 5,000 to 7,000 euros. The whole thing was “actually a process that is not in order”. The studies had nothing to do with his lobbying activities. “My assumption was that Himmer wanted to vote me in favor of not interceding too much for Huawei,” Hochegger said. The Chinese telecommunications supplier and hardware manufacturer was known “for offering similar quality (like Alcatel, note) at a lower price”. Hochegger’s company provided consulting services to Huawei.
Fischer in Thailand, Hochegger in private bankruptcy
In court, Hochegger claimed that he had given Himmer 19,000 euros in cash from Alcatel’s money for the first study. Fischer got 12,000 euros in cash and a picture worth 7,000 euros. In addition to Himmer, Fischer also decisively rejected this. The court did not make any such statements – at least orally.
Fischer has now moved the center of his life to Thailand, as he explained to the jury panel when asked about his generalities. He is a pensioner, he did not want to reveal his monthly salary. According to his own statements, Hochegger now lives as a pensioner in the third district of Vienna on 1,050 euros net. He is in private bankruptcy. Himmer identified himself as a management consultant, but apart from his earnings as a member of the Federal Council he is currently not receiving any other income “because I have prepared myself for this procedure”. When asked about his assets, the ÖVP politician said: “Real estate worth 450,000 euros.”
Source: Nachrichten
