Court upholds lawyer’s sentence in Traunsee property fraud case

The Higher Regional Court of Linz has upheld a lawyer’s sentence in a disputed property deal on Lake Traunsee in Upper Austria, ORF reported on Monday. He remains sentenced to 15 months in prison, with 10 months suspended, for aggravated fraud.

Several other convictions in the case became legally binding in March. A realtor, two property entrepreneurs and two lawyers were found to have persuaded an elderly woman to sell her property below its value.

The realtor received a three-year unconditional prison sentence. The two property entrepreneurs were sentenced to 30 and 24 months, partly suspended, while another lawyer received 18 months, also partly suspended. All were convicted of aggravated fraud; the realtor was additionally convicted of giving false evidence and breach of trust.

The realtor’s husband, who had been charged as the alleged source of the tip, was acquitted in a separate trial. That acquittal is also legally binding.

In autumn 2019, the group allegedly pressured the woman to sell a former guesthouse on Lake Traunsee to a property company for 750,000 euros, although its market value was said to have been well above 1 million euros. The owner, who has since died, may already have lacked legal capacity at the time. The deal has since been reversed under civil law.