On Tuesday at the district court in Wels in Austria the criminal case against Richard Gartner will start. The public prosecutor accuses the transport company from Lambach of serious fraud, fraudulent insolvency, balance sheet falsification, benefiting a creditor and dishonesty in the insolvency of the fruit and vegetable import firm from Wels 'Obst Huber' in the beginning of 2003. For various reasons the process had to wait for nine years.
The damage which is mentioned in the indictment amounts in total to about twelve million Euro. Gartner's punishment could be as high as 10 years in jail. Gartner was owner and manager of Obst Huber. The company was declared insolvent with a total debt of 27 million Euro. 204 employees and 500 creditors were harmed.
The public prosecutor - represented by Christian Hubmer - accuses Gartner of having applied for insolvency for Obst Huber far too late. The inability to pay should already have been quite clear in August 2002. As obtaining of goods went on in the usual way and Gartner knew that he could not pay, creditors were let down.
Companies which were part of the Gartner-group have been paid, whilst other creditor accounts remained unpaid. Tufekci, the main supplier from Turkey and partner of Obst Huber, in which Gartner was an interested party, received 20 million Euro as a payment in advance, for which Obst Huber did not receive sufficient product.
Judgment may be delivered on the 5th of December.