Austrian banker loses fight against extradition to US on money laundering charges

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LONDON (Reuters) – The former chief executive of an Austrian bank can be extradited to the United States on money laundering charges relating to Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, London’s High Court ruled on Tuesday.

Peter Weinzierl – former chief executive of Meinl Bank, later renamed Anglo Austrian AAB Bank – is accused of helping launder hundreds of millions of dollars in a scheme involving the use of slush funds to bribe public officials.

The 59-year-old Austrian national denies the allegations and fought against his extradition on a number of grounds, including that he was “lured” to Britain in May 2021 by an alleged U.S. law enforcement agent in order to arrest him.

But his challenge to his extradition was dismissed in June 2023 and an appeal against that decision was mostly rejected in February.

The High Court had ruled that Weinzierl could not be extradited in relation to one charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering, but approved Weinzierl’s extradition on the other charges.

Judge Jeremy Johnson on Tuesday ruled that Weinzierl’s case did not raise a point of law of general public importance, blocking the path to take the case to the UK’s Supreme Court.

Weinzierl’s lawyer David Pack said in a statement: “The judiciary have missed an opportunity to provide certainty on UK-U.S. extradition law.”

Weinzierl faces charges in New York for his alleged role in a massive fraud and bribery scheme involving Odebrecht, which changed its name in 2020 to Novonor SA after its name became synonymous with graft.

Odebrecht has admitted it doled out bribes to governments across Latin America to help build its vast construction empire.

In 2016, Odebrecht and affiliated petrochemical company Braskem, Brazil’s largest petrochemicals company, agreed to pay at least $3.5 billion to settle charges brought by U.S., Brazilian and Swiss authorities.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)