During the course of World War II, Meinl III was in close contact with the authorities in Britain, providing advice and assistance on the manner in which the Nazi Party had extended its influence on Central Europe through the infiltration of the management of large retail organisations.
Meinl's contribution involved the identification of significant Nazi sympathisers who were occupying positions of authority in Austria and who had remained undetected.
[3] In the early 1990s, Julius Meinl AG reestablished food-retail operations in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland, where it had historically already been present.
In 1998/99, the company implemented the divestiture of the food-retailing assets of Julius Meinl AG in Austria and Hungary,[6][7] following which the group's activities became focused primarily on banking and finance operations.
Also in 2001, the subsidiary Meinl Capital Advisors AG was founded to provide corporate finance and investment banking advisory services to governments and private clients.
Meinl, who was at that time suspected of involvement in yet-to-be defined wrongdoing, was required to post bail of 100 million euros, because the judge considered him a flight risk due to his holding a British passport.
In February 2012, the Jersey Financial Services Commission announced that it had closed its investigation into the affairs of Meinl European Land, having found no evidence of wrongdoing.,[12][13][14][15] Following a decision of the Higher Regional Court of Vienna, most of the record deposit – 90 million euros – was refunded in March 2013.
[20][21][22] As announced on April 17, 2015, the Vienna Higher Regional Court (OLG Wien) upheld the oppositions and rejected the charges against Julius Meinl and other defendants.
[23][24] On May 14, 2024, the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office announced that it had discontinued all criminal proceedings against Julius Meinl V and a number of other individuals that arose from the investigations begun in 2008, 16 years previously.
[25] The announcement by the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office was supported by a comprehensive report that fully exonerated Julius Meinl V and the other individuals.
In light of the statement by the Vienna Public Prosecutor's office there were no continuing criminal proceedings in relation to Meinl European Land in Austria or in any other country.