Hypo Bank Dismisses Money Laundering Charges

The Hypo Alpe Adria group categorically dismissed all charges in relation to their business relationship with the retired General Zagorec.

The Hypo Alpe Adria group especially dismisses claims that the Hypo bank “laundered money”, according to the Austrian APA agency.

In a statement published in Klagenfurt, where the main headquarters of the bank is, stated that the bank entered business relations with Zagorec “only in 2004, which can be proved”. It continued that it was never involved in transactions with Croatian government money, or with money that originated from the war, says APA.

In a statement, the bank stresses that in 2004 when it entered business relations with Zagorec, it concerns the whole Hypo group, including the Hypo bank in Croatia.

Last month, the responsible institutions of Croatian justice, sought legal help in the investigation against Zagorec from the Austrian authorities. The Austrian State Attorney from Klagenfurt confirmed that an investigation has been opened at the request of Croatia.

The bank’s report states that the investigation does not concern any employees of the bank. One person that is under investigation has never been an employee of the Hypo bank. The ex president of Hypo Alpe Adria bank’s board of directors, Guenter Striedinger, who is under investigation, ended his business relations with the bank late last August, according to the statement.

On Sunday, the Austrian political weekly “Profil” released in their online publication that the Austrian justice department has opened an investigation against Striedinger.

The amount of financing for Zagorec or his companies from Hypo bank is 4 million euros, the statement says. The bank is also financing five real estate projects in Croatia worth a total of 70 million euros.

“We especially stress that the loans for those five projects are not deposit insured. Those five projects are insured exclusively by mortgage”, says the Hypo bank statement. They added that the three digit millions figure that some medias were writing about were “totally made up”.

The bank further stated that deposited on Zagorec’s account are a few hundred thousand euros, and that the account was opened in 2005. Whilst opening the account, the bank, as stated, respected all aspects of Austrian law against money laundering, and everything was checked. Apart from that, Zagorec’s deposit was not used to insure any loans.