Austrian bank "laundered drug money"

Austrian Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank, the dealings of which are being investigated, "laundered drug lord Darko Šarić money".

The amount is said to be EUR 100mn, and the allegation was made by Austrian daily Osterreich.

Šarić is a fugitive from justice, wanted in Serbia in connection to a massive cocaine smuggling operation uncovered last year.

Quoting Serbian authorities, the daily writes that Šarić used off-shore companies "to invest" EUR 100mn in the bank’s accounts, primarily in Lichtenstein.

At the same time, between 2007 and 2009, the bank’s branches in the Netherlands approved two loans worth EUR 100mn to Block 67 Associates, a company which was in charge of building the Belville apartment block in New Belgrade.

According to the Austrian daily, the loan payment stopped very soon and only EUR 8.5mn out of both loans have been paid back. The bank them moved to settle the debt internally from the EUR 100mn account belonging to Šarić.

The investigators believe that this sequence of events was "possible in principle, if the bank's management was aware of it", said the report.

Former Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank chief Tilo Berlin, who was in office when the bankwas owned by Germany's Bayern LB, stated that he did not know Šarić.

Berlin was at the helm of the bank from 2007 until 2009, when major embezzlement and money laundering took in Croatia under former Executive Board President Wolfgang Kulterer, who is currently in custody.

Source: B92