AFP, Vienna, 5 Nov 2012 – A top Iranian official allegedly using trips to Vienna to set up an international money- laundering network is known to the authorities but is not subject to any criminal investigation, Austrian officials said Monday.
Austria’s domestic intelligence agency ‘can only begin an investigation if there is a concrete suspicion that the law has been broken, ‘Karl-Heinz Grundboeck, a spokesman for the interior ministry, told AFP.
‘There is currently no criminal investigation pending, ‘he said, adding however that the intelligence agency was ‘not blind and deaf.’
Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported in late October that the senior aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allegedly used regular visits to Vienna to build an international network to launder millions of euros through Austria, Italy and Germany.
Transfers from the operation, set up to circumvent international restrictions stopping Iran from getting equipment for its nuclear work, have been documented to accounts as far as Russia and China to pay for goods subsequently sent to Iran, the Telegraph reported, citing unnamed sources.
Last month Austrian weekly Profil reported on similar claims made by the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK), an exiled Iranian opposition group removed from Washington’s blacklist of designated ‘terror’ groups in September.
The Jerusalem Post on Sunday quoted Shimon Samuels, director for international relations at Jewish rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as saying Austria is a ‘hub of abuse for money launderers’ and calling on the European Union to penalize it.