Tyrolean GemNova bankruptcy: investigations against two former people responsible

A spokesman for the Innsbruck public prosecutor’s office told the APA on Monday that the investigation is being carried out on suspicion of fraudulent Krida and grossly negligent impairment of creditors’ interests. The authorities did not want to say who exactly it was.

• From the archive: Tyrolean GemNova: Around 700 employees affected by bankruptcy

However, as the APA learned from a reliable source, it is the former president of the municipal association and long-time ÖVP politician Ernst Schöpf, also the incumbent mayor of Sölden, as well as the former GemNova managing director Alois Rathgeb. On Monday, according to public prosecutor spokesman Hansjörg Mayr, the community association “seized documents” in the case. However, one cannot speak of a house search in the classic sense. The investigations resulted from the examination of the financial behavior of GemNova and its subsidiaries in the course of the insolvency proceedings, according to the public prosecutor’s office.

Mayors’ conference sealed bankruptcy

The GemNova case kept Tyrolean state politics busy for months last year. The bankruptcy was finally sealed at a mayor’s conference of the municipal association in mid-July. There, the required approval of 90 percent of the 276 local leaders for the increase in membership fees by 1.1 million euros was not achieved and the restructuring planned by Schöpf failed. Schöpf ultimately withdrew from the top of the association; he also repeatedly identified and criticized the exaggeration of the case, intrigues within the association and a media campaign against him.

GemNova and its parent company and five subsidiaries went bankrupt. The liabilities of the subsidiaries amounted to around 4.3 million euros. Including the parent company, the liabilities totaled up to ten million euros. The state absorbed the majority of the employees of the “subsidiary” Bildungspool Tirol GmbH – it employed by far the most people in the company structure – through a specially founded non-profit company.

14.3 million euros in claims

At the end of September, the credit protection association KSV von 1870 announced that around 14.3 million euros in claims had been registered by the creditors; the insolvency administrator had so far recognized 9.7 million euros as legitimate, it was said. The Alpine Creditors Association expected that the insolvency proceedings would last for several years.

However, there was still no news from the judiciary in a side strand of the GemNova case. It revolved around a 320,000 euro payment from the state from 2012, which apparently took a “detour” via the municipality of Sölden and only then ended up at GemNova. In this regard, Tyrol’s FPÖ leader Markus Abwerzger had filed a complaint against Schöpf, among others, for possible breach of trust and abuse of office. Since then, the public prosecutor’s office has been examining initial suspicions. This review was still ongoing for the time being, said spokesman Mayr. Schöpf strictly rejected the allegations against him. The country also spoke of a legally compliant procedure.