A former board chairman of the Carinthian Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, Wolfgang Kulterer, on Monday refuted media allegations about private ties with former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, according to the Austrian news agency APA.
Kulterer "never studied with Ivo Sanader in Innsbruck nor has he ever had private ties with him," Kulterer's attorney Ferdinand Lanker said in a statement today.
Sanader became PM when the building of Hypo Alpe Adria Bank in Croatia "was completed to a considerable extent," said the statement.
The media depict Sanader as someone who opened the doors to Hypo Alpe Adria Bank in Croatia, and claim that Kulterer at one time allegedly bragged about his ties with him.
According to the media, Kulterer received kickbacks for loan brokerage and money was taken in bags from Croatia via Klagenfurt to Liechtenstein.
All those accusations are incorrect, Lanker said, adding that Kulterer knew nothing about kickbacks paid to Sanader or about illegal money deliveries.
Therefore, Kulterer would welcome it if the Austrian authorities questioned Sanader in the Hypo Alpe Adria Bank case, the statement said. Kulterer is allegedly convinced that the accusations against him in the case would be dismissed.
Lanker said that "of course" there been contacts with top Croatian government officials, but also warned about Sanader's many international contacts, including with former European Commissioner Franz Fischler.
"After all, as the prime minister of Croatia and an experienced statesman, Sanader was appreciated and respected on an international scale and was reputed as the one who opened the door of the European Union to Croatia," Lanker said in the statement.
On the other hand, private detective Dietmar Guggenbichler told the Salzburger Nachrichten daily that Kulterer had spoken of Sanader "as a personal friend."
Guggenbichler said the special commission investigating Hypo Alpe Adria Bank in Klagenfurt was in possession of a tape made at a meeting of the two at Klagenfurt's airport at the end of the summer of 2006, and that Kulterer needed Sanader to open Hypo Alpe Adria Bank's branch in Croatia.
After that, according to the detective, Kulterer found himself under pressure due to events in Croatia and ordered him to examine possible risks in Croatia.
