Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/573382
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2015 16 News ON 14 September, 2013, the lobbyist and Austrian PR man Peter Hochegger revealed to businessman Sardana the existence of a "dirty and illegal campaign" financed by Vi- enna Airport, to ruin Sardana's New York- based businesses. It was nine months since Hochegger – who has since been sentenced to jail – had been charged by the Vienna State Prosecutor's Office with helping to divert €960,000 from Telecom Austria to the right-wing party, Al- liance for the Future of Austria. Hochegger was then facing up to 10 years over his role in laundering the funds through two advertis- ing agencies for the party of far-rightist Jorg Haider, using fake invoices and without the knowledge of shareholders. Hochegger was not new to scandal. In March 2012 he was found to have received nearly €1.5 million from the Bulgarian gov- ernment coalition to boost the country's im- age abroad: basically bribing Austrian poli- ticians. So it may have come not entirely by surprise to Sardana when Hochegger told him, for the very first time, that he had de- veloped "a covert strategy to discredit and destroy" Sardana's businesses at the behest of Vienna International Airport. It was not a confession taken in the least bit lightly. Three days later, Hochegger checked in at the United States embassy in Vienna on Boltzmanngasse, to execute an affidavit, sworn to before Mark A. Brand, the Vice Consul, in which he stated: "In 2003/2004, my company was assigned and awarded the project to undertake dirty campaigning to malign and destroy the rep- utation of Mr Rakesh Sardana and his New York based subsidiary, Saveria JFK Inc, to- gether with a leading Vienna based law firm at the behest of Vienna International Air- port plc (VIE AG) by Mr Herbert Kaufmann (CEO), Mr Gerhard Schmid (COO) and Mr Kurt Waniek (CFO), who were then the members of Executive Board of Directors and the top management of Vienna Interna- tional Airport plc (VIE)." Hochegger's "handler", the man VIE tasked to supply him with confidential dossiers and information on Sardana, had been none other than Julian Jaeger, who in 2004 was the manager in the legal department of VIE, and would later be CEO of Malta International Airport. Hochegger's confession revealed how VIE's top executives and influential figures from the Vienna municipality who own the air- port had conceived, early on at the start of a fruitful business relationship with Sardana, a "masterplan" to oust "the Indian" – a 10-year campaign designed to ruin Sardana economi- cally and internationally, by spreading false stories about him and his business practices. It was Hochegger who in 2003, developed VIE's 'master plan for securing Vienna Air- port in the long term' – a plan for a campaign against Sardana that would be based on a mix- ture of half-truths and lies, "with just enough actual truths sprinkled in give it a veneer of legitimacy" to destroy Rakesh Sardana. Its aim, as told to Hochegger by VIE's chief financial officer Kurt Waniek, was to "send the Indian only with a nylon shopping bag with a one-way ticket back to India." At the outset, it must be stated that Vienna International Airport say Sardana's accusa- tions are "absurd" and unfounded; and that his grievances related to terminated leases on his shops when he started falling behind on rent. But Sardana is suing MIA's parent company for a total of $168 million in New York, over what he claims is his lost profit at JFK airport where he ran 18 retail shops. Why did Vienna International Airport carry out this "master plan" against its own business partner, who ran 45 shops at VIE and promised to export their retail concept to their own advantage? Routing out the Indian Hochegger's confession to Sardana, a naturalized Austrian citizen, was the culmination of a decade-long con- spiracy to damage Sardana's eco- nomic interests at VIE and at Ter- minal 4 at JFK Airport, where he took over its retail section. Sardana arrived in Austria in 1975, hitchhiking overland via Afghanistan to meet his sister in Vienna, arriving with just $70 in his pocket. At the beginning he sold cheap goods on the street. In 1983, he started as a retailer at Vienna Airport and then started growing his international contacts, soon estab- lishing international brands such as Har- rods, Bally, Swarovski, Longchamp, Desigual and Hermès at Vienna Airport. He eventu- ally became the largest retailer at VIE with 45 shops: a growth that also meant increased rental revenues for VIE. So in 1996, VIE and Sardana became joint partners in VIE Shops, a joint venture to de- velop specialty retail shops at other interna- tional airports using Sardana's expertise to seek out international opportunities. For VIE, the 51% shareholder, the invest- ment meant also cashing in on profits from retail. But as the financial partner in the joint venture, it could also withhold funding for a proposed project, effectively preventing Sardana from developing the opportunity unless VIE agreed to release him from his joint venture obligations. Sardana expected, however, that VIE would act in its own best business interests, and not as Sardana claims, on a secret conspiracy to destroy him. An inauspicious start to the Vienna joint venture failed to deter Sardana: when he pre- sented his detailed concept for VIE's retail expansion, the VIE board never responded, and instead – Sardana learned later – ap- propriated his concept and awarded the re- tail development rights to Johann Riedl, an Austrian company and competitor, without competitive bidding. But it was clear that despite the partner- ship, Sardana was a persona non grata by the VIE board. An affidavit sworn to in 2013 by Siegfreid Gangl, VIE's former vice president responsible for international expansion until 2002, said: "I can further state and testify that in several Executive Management meetings and within the VIE corporate culture, Mr Sardana was generally referred in derogatory terms due to his ethnicity and national ori- gins with impunity resulting in institutional racial discrimination." So Sardana turned his sights on JFK's Termi- nal 4, securing in 2002 a three-year lease for his new company Saveria Jaeger vs Klaushofer A former chief executive officer of Malta International Airport between 2007-2011, Julian Jaeger, 44, is COO and supervisory board member at Vienna International Airport. At MIA he was succeeded by his former friend, Markus Klaushofer. The two fell out when Jaeger asked him to resign. Klaushofer claims he refused to give VIE confidential shareholder information from MIA (VIE is part of the majority consortium that owns MIA, the other shareholders being the public and the government). Klaushofer was sacked after refusing a €400,000 golden handshake, to pursue an unfair dismissal case in Malta. Businessman Rakesh Sardana ran VIE's retail shops and the 'Mostly Mozart' chain. He claims that Vienna International Airport financed "a covert strategy to discredit and destroy" his businesses How Malta airport's owners in Vienna created 'dirty' war against their partner Airport retail entrepreneur Rakesh Sardana claims Vienna International Airport, which owns 32% of Malta International Airport, financed a covert campaign to destroy him. Last week he filed a lawsuit in New York claiming some €150 million in damages. Vienna says his allegations are absurd. If true, the cloak-and-dagger tactics Sardana alleges were taken against him raise serious questions over the way MIA's parent company carries out some of its business. By MATTHEW VELLA