Airbus is involved in a furious row with Austria over a fraud investigation in connection with a $2 billion fighter jet deal.
Airbus is involved in a furious row with Austria over a fraud investigation in connection with a $2 billion fighter jet deal.
The Eurofighter jet order dates back about 14 years and the country's leading political parties have been involved in the deal's long and controversial history.
Airbus and other partners in Eurofighter - Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Leonardo - and the consortium itself have denied any wrongdoing.
Here are some details on more than a decade of wrangling over neutral Austria's biggest ever arms purchase.
2003 PURCHASE
The initial contract was first agreed under a coalition between the conservative People's Party and the far-right Freedom party in 2003.
Austria, led by conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, ordered 18 Eurofighter jets for 1.96 billion euros.
The contract hinged on so-called offset deals, which were meant to provide work to local businesses, worth 4 billion euros, or 204 percent of the purchase price. It called for the offset deals to be completed by 2018.
The circumstances of the order were obscure because influential government members, who initially opposed it, suddenly threw their weight behind the deal.
Critics claimed that competing offers from SAAB and Lockheed Martin were cheaper. Austrian media and opposition politicians voiced speculation about bribery payments, which led to criminal investigations (see below).
2006 PARLIAMENT INQUIRY
A first parliamentary inquiry, set up after a shift in power under Social Democratic Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer in 2006, looked into potentially cancelling the contract.
2007 SETTLEMENT
Defence Minister Norbert Darabos, also a Social Democrat, agreed on a settlement with Eurofighter to reduce the order to 15 jets from 18 and the volume of offset or side deals to 3.5 billion euros from 4 billion euros.
The parliamentary inquiry was terminated shortly after the settlement.
2011 CRIMINAL PROBES
German and Austrian prosecutors started in 2011 investigating bribery allegations in connection with the Eurofighter deal.
Munich prosecutors have said they expect to complete preliminary investigations by mid year.
Vienna prosecutors have said they cannot estimate how long it will take to complete their investigations.
2012 TASK FORCE
The Austrian defence ministry created a special task force in 2012 to review the offset deals.
2014 WARNING
The defence ministry said in 2014 it was still an option to exit the Eurofighter contract.
2017 FRAUD PROBE
In February 2017, the task force published its findings. Based on these, Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil filed a complaint against Airbus and the Eurofighter consortium alleging wilful deception and fraud linked to the deal.
Vienna prosecutors launched a formal criminal investigation against Airbus and the Eurofighter consortium based on the defence ministry's complaint.
On April 26, Vienna prosecutors disclosed they had opened an investigation into suspected fraud by 16 individuals including Airbus CEO Thomas Enders, confirming correspondence seen by Reuters.
Airbus called the accusations unsubstantiated and Enders accused the Austrian government of playing politics.
2017 NEW PARLIAMENT INQUIRY
Austrian Greens and the Freedom Party started setting up a second parliamentary inquiry in March.
The probe is set to start in early summer and will seek to determine whether money was paid to win the contract and to identify any officials who might have profited.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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