WKStA investigates alleged asset stripping at Meinl Bank
Thursday 15th October 2026 on 12:01 in
Austria
Austria’s Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is investigating several people, including former Meinl Bank supervisory board chairman Julius Meinl V, over alleged misconduct before the bank’s insolvency. ORF reports that the case involves suspected breach of trust, embezzlement and fraudulent bankruptcy, with estimated losses of about 150 million euros.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed it is examining financial transactions in the years before the bank failed. Assets worth about 150 million euros may have been diverted, reduced or embezzled, in some cases putting them beyond the reach of creditors, it said. Meinl Bank, later renamed Anglo Austrian Bank, went bankrupt in 2020.
Former bank executives, including Meinl and several former board members, are suspected of abusing their authority and deliberately reducing the bank’s assets as insolvency approached. The allegations include selling valuable company stakes, including in the coffee business, below their value and granting loans or overdrafts to foreign companies linked to the bank.
Investigators also allege that Meinl received substantial consulting fees without providing corresponding services, and that the bank covered costs for a private aircraft without checking whether flights were for business or personal use.
The investigation also concerns the former Caribbean subsidiary Meinl Bank Antigua. Former bank officials are suspected of embezzling deposits and securities entrusted to the bank. Investigators allege that worthless or high-risk loan claims were transferred to the subsidiary to manipulate Meinl Bank’s balance sheet.
Meinl, who lives in the Czech Republic, is also suspected of moving personal assets beyond creditors’ reach, including by gifting property and company stakes to relatives or transferring them to companies close to him. The Standard reported that a villa in Vienna’s Döbling district was sold to a Czech company that is now indirectly owned by a relative.
At the prosecutor’s request, Vienna’s Regional Court for Criminal Matters ordered the seizure of several properties. The orders have been carried out and entered in the land register, the prosecutor’s office said. The Standard reported that the properties include the villa and a plot of land in Styria.