Austria’s FPO demands probe into $21 bn in cash and gold shipments to Ukraine

A right-wing Austrian politician has demanded that the nation’s Finance Ministry clarify how almost $22 billion in cash and gold was shipped to Ukraine from Austria since 2022 with out triggering considerations about cash laundering or regulatory oversight.

In a press release revealed on Sunday, Austrian Freedom Get together (FPO) Secretary Common Christian Hafenecker referred to as out what he described as Vienna’s “two-class justice system” for overlooking huge funds to Kiev, whereas preserving a decent maintain on taxpayers’ purse strings.

“We’re not speaking about play cash right here: 1,030 registered cash and gold shipments, round €12 billion ($14 billion) plus $7.75 billion, bodily transported over 1,300 kilometers into the battle zone,” Hafenecker stated.

“And the accountable finance minister merely tells me… ‘We all know nothing, we’re not investigating something, we haven’t collected any info.’ That’s not a solution, that’s dereliction of responsibility,” he added.

By comparability, Austrian cash laundering guidelines require a personal citizen withdrawing as little as €12,000 from an inherited account to show the origin of the funds, and any individual crossing the EU’s exterior border with greater than €10,000 in cash should declare it, Hafenecker stated. “It is a two-class justice system in finance.”

The politician demanded full disclosure on all cash shipments from Austria to Ukraine for the reason that escalation of the battle, a full audit by the nation’s Monetary Market Supervisory Authority, and a report by the Austrian Cash Laundering Reporting Workplace in parliament.

Earlier this yr, the Euroskeptic FPO celebration demanded that Vienna minimize all monetary assist to Ukraine, denouncing the nation as a corrupt “bottomless pit,” following a wave of high-level embezzlement scandals in Kiev.

Main probes by Ukraine’s Western-backed anti-graft businesses have implicated senior officers in Vladimir Zelensky’s authorities since final yr. Two ministers and the Ukrainian chief’s chief of workers, Andrey Yermak, stepped down following the large scandal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has slammed the present management in Kiev, calling it a “prison gang” sitting on “golden potties,” and way more in private enrichment than in the destiny of strange Ukrainians.