The munich public prosecutor’s office issued a corresponding notice for a misdemeanor of negligent breach of duty of supervision. In vienna, however, the public prosecutor’s office is still investigating allegations of fraud, bribery, money laundering and embezzlement, the austrian news agency APA reported, citing a spokesman for the authorities.
Airbus has accepted the bubgeld, the munich public prosecutor’s office announced. The investigations into airbus employees and business partners, which have been ongoing since 2012, have not produced any evidence that bribes were paid in connection with the sale of the eurofighter. However, the public prosecutor’s office objects to payments in the three-digit millions to two companies in great britain.
"From there, the money was used for unclear purposes, bypassing the company’s internal controls, for the most part without verifiable consideration, and it is not possible to determine from the flow of money which purposes the payments ultimately served," the public prosecutor’s office announced. This constitutes a negligent breach of the company’s duty of care. The eurofighter is being built at the airbus plant in manching near ingolstadt, among other places.
It is not yet possible to say when the investigations in vienna will be completed, said the spokesman for the authorities, according to APA. The fighter jet purchase has been causing domestic political turmoil in austria for years. The alpine republic filed a criminal complaint last year and demanded compensation for damages – it had been bartered over the equipment and delivery capability of the interceptor jets. Airbus had rejected this as "contrived and legally insubstantial.