Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office discontinues proceedings against voestalpine initiated by the Umweltdachverband

10 January 2014 |

The proceedings initiated by the Umweltdachverband (UWD) last summer with the Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption against voestalpine on allegations of tax evasion of ALSAG contributions for the storage of LD slag were discontinued on December 27th. The accusation made by the UWD and constantly repeated since then has thus proven to be unfounded, as voestalpine had always expected.

Allegation of tax evasion of ALSAG contributions thus proven to be unfounded
Allegation of "abuse of office" against state officials also refuted

The dismissal was based on a tax audit carried out by the customs authorities as part of the proceedings. In summary, the Linz customs office stated "that all relevant permits from the trade authorities are available for the Linz site of voestalpine Stahl GmbH and that the legal existence of the landfill is completely unquestionable and therefore the interim storage of LD slag (...) does not constitute an activity subject to contributions within the meaning of the Contaminated Sites Remediation Act. (...) In the opinion of the Linz Wels customs office, no irregularities were detected by the audit during the period of suspicion (...)."

The proceedings against officials of the Linz City Council and the Office of the Upper Austrian Provincial Government were also discontinued. The Umweltdachverband had accused them of abuse of office by incorrectly assessing the waste status of LD slag. The decisions of the officials were based on justifiable legal opinions and no abuse of official authority could be inferred from them, according to the statement on the discontinuation of the proceedings.

The discontinuation concerns the vast majority of the proceedings and the core of the allegations made by the UWD, namely against the Linz site. The audit of the Donawitz site is still ongoing.

The voestalpine Group

The voestalpine Group is a steel-based technology and capital goods group that operates worldwide. With 500 Group companies and locations in more than 50 countries and on all five continents, the Group has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 1995. With its top-quality products, the Group is one of the leading partners to the automotive and consumer goods industries in Europe and to the oil and gas industries worldwide. The voestalpine Group is also the world market leader in turnout technology, special rails, tool steel, and special sections. In the business year 2012/13, the voestalpine Group reported revenue of more than EUR 11.5 billion and an operating result (EBITDA) of EUR 1.45 billion. It staffs roughly 46,400 employees worldwide.