Austrian industrialist Siegfried Wolf and former finance minister Hans Jörg Schelling went on trial near Vienna on Tuesday, charged by prosecutors with attempts to secure a tax waiver.
A tax official is also in the dock at the Regional Court in Wiener Neustadt, a city around 50 kilometres south of the Austrian capital.
According to prosecutors, Wolf and the official are suspected of corruption, while Schelling is charged with attempted incitement to abuse of office.
Each of the accused faces up to 10 years in prison. Their lawyers deny the allegations. A verdict is expected in December.
Wolf is known for his activities in the automotive industry and his involvement in Russian business.
The former head of car parts supplier Magna bought an Austrian truck plant of the Volkswagen subsidiary MAN in 2021. Until 2022, he chaired the supervisory board of the partly state-owned Russian banking group Sberbank Europe.
Wolf and the tax official are alleged to have struck a corrupt deal in 2018. According to the prosecutor’s office, the well-connected manager reached out to a high-ranking official in the Finance Ministry to negotiate a senior post for the tax official.
In return, she allegedly campaigned for Wolf to have a tax debt of more than €600,000 ($675,000) waived.
The defence lawyers for the two main defendants denied the allegations in court, the Austrian news agency APA reported.
