Karl-Heinz Grasser | FinTelegram News

Tag: Karl-Heinz Grasser

March 26, 2025

Corruption’s Dark Legacy: Lessons from the Grasser Case and Beyond!

The Austrian Supreme Court has delivered its remarkable verdict in the high-profile corruption case involving former Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser, marking a significant moment in Austria's legal history. The court upheld the initial conviction but reduced Grasser's sentence from eight to four years in prison, citing the prolonged duration of the legal proceedings.

March 11, 2021

Vienna Cybercrime Trials against former CFO Marina Barak start next week!

Gal Barak was found guilty as charged in early September 2020 as the head of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria for investment fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Also, millions of Euros frozen in Bulgarian bank accounts were confiscated for restitution payments. Barak is about to be extradited to Germany, where he is also charged with operating the fraudulent brokers. His partner and wife, Bulgarian Marina Barak, will stand trial as his accomplice and CFO of E&G Bulgaria. She is expected to plead not guilty.

December 5, 2020

A watershed moment – Austria’s former finance minister sentenced to 8 years in prison for corruption

It was the biggest white-collar crime court case in Austria ever and perhaps also in the EU. Austria’s former finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser along with..

December 5, 2020

A watershed moment – Austria’s former finance minister sentenced to 8 years in prison for corruption

Austria's former finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser along with more than a dozen alleged co-conspirators has been charged with corruption. After seven years of investigation by the public prosecutor's office, a 3-year trial with 168 trial days and 150 witnesses, Grasser was sentenced to 8 years in prison and more than €9 million in restitution payments. There was no witness who directly observed a criminal act. The court believes that the trace of the money provides the respective evidence beyond any reasonable doubt. The judgment is not final. Grasser has appealed.

The Unraveling of Rabidi and the Rise of the SoftSwiss Network: Our Updated Forensic Report

A few months ago, FinTelegram released a first forensic report on the bankruptcy of Rabidi N.V., a Curacao-registered online casino operator with hundreds of millions in revenues — and no traceable assets by the time of its collapse in May 2024. That report already raised serious questions about the opaque structures behind Rabidi’s operations and its successor, Liernin Enterprises Ltd.

DeFi Decoded: Smart Contracts – The Code Behind the DeFi Revolution

Smart contracts are the invisible architects of decentralized finance. These self-executing lines of code run everything from token swaps to lending platforms without middlemen. But while they offer autonomy, they also introduce new risks—bugs, exploits, and irreversible mistakes. In this fourth installment of our FinTelegram DeFi Series, we explain what smart contracts are.

CFTC

Despite New Crypto Friendlyness: No Settlement Between U.S. CFTC And KuCoin?

A planned settlement between the U.S.CFTC and crypto exchange KuCoin is now in limbo due to a reported policy shift within the CFTC. This change is attributed to the Trump administration’s new approach, which deprioritizes enforcement actions against crypto companies. As a result, a CFTC attorney said that it is "unlikely that such authorization will be granted in the near term" regarding the settlement approval.

SEC’s New Era: Paul Atkins Sworn In—Will Crypto Finally Get the Regulatory Clarity It Deserves?

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has entered a new chapter with the swearing-in of Paul S. Atkins as its 34th Chairman, a move widely anticipated to mark a dramatic pivot in how the agency approaches crypto and DeFi regulation. For years, the financial industry—especially the burgeoning digital asset sector—has bristled under the SEC’s “Regulation by Enforcement” strategy.

Crypto Mogul Changpeng Zhao – Fallen, Rich, and Rising Again?

As spring 2025 blooms and Easter’s themes of rebirth fill the air, Changpeng Zhao emerges as one of the most controversial figures of startup mythology: a man who fell spectacularly, paid a price—then rose again, wealthier and louder than ever. Once the almighty architect of Binance, CZ now resides in Dubai with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $63 billion.