Hannes Androsch

1967 was a fateful year for Androsch: he was certified as a public accountant and tax advisor, allowing him to participate in the financial consulting enterprise which his parents had significantly expanded; and he became a member of parliament for the Socialist party where he earned himself a reputation as a shooting star.

When Bruno Kreisky turned the tables on Austria's political scenery with the 1970 national election he made the 32-year-old Androsch Finance Minister in his first minority cabinet on 21 April 1970.

While Androsch had built an excellent political network within the centrist wing of the Socialist party and especially the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), not everybody was happy with his rapid rise.

The fact that the Austrian print media, who for the most part venerated Kreisky and had adorned him with the nickname "Sun King," started to refer to Androsch as the "Crown Prince" did not help.

He started to take exception to a highly problematic incompatibility that had been public knowledge since Androsch became a member of the government: he still owned the tax advisor company (renamed Consultatio in 1970) which he had taken over from his parents, although he had placed it in escrow when he became a finance minister.

Androsch repeatedly stated (and repeated these allegations in a series of interviews published by the Austrian newspaper "Die Presse" in February and March 2010; see sources) that his Socialist successors in the finance ministry, Herbert Salcher and Franz Vranitzky (who had been Androsch's secretary, and would later rise to chancellorship) had conspired with Kreisky, "who was simply jealous", (and with political opponent Alois Mock) to "construe the financial and legal proceedings against him", that would not be finally settled for the following 16 years.

A central point of Androsch's defence concerning his personal finances — he claimed that a rich "uncle-by-choice" ("Wahlonkel" in German) had provided him with significant funds, and habitually replied "alas, no" when asked if he was a millionaire — did not hold.

On 8 October 1991 Androsch was convicted by the Vienna Regional Criminal Court of having evaded taxes between 1974 and 1983 in the amount of about five million Austrian schillings (roughly corresponding to €500,000 expressed in 2010 currency), a minuscule fraction of the original allegations.

A legally separate but politically related affair (a conviction for false testimony to the parliamentary examination board investigating the scandal surrounding the Vienna General Hospital) forced Androsch to resign from the Creditanstalt post in January 1988.

He was deputy chairman of the supervisory board of FIMBAG Finanzmarktbeteiligung AG,[5] the vehicle through which the state-owned Österreichische Industrieholding controls its stakes in Austrian banking system.