Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/573382
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2015 News 17 JFK to operate the specialty retail shops, identical to the shops he op- erated at the Vienna Airport. Sardana informed the CEO of VIE, Herbert Kaufmann, of the JFK project. But while the VIE manage- ment initially showed great interest in the project, it withheld consent to participate and would not commit funding for the project, nor would it release Sardana from his obligations to allow Saveria JFK to operate the Terminal 4 project on a stand-alone basis. "The board saw the Terminal 4 project as a means to leverage its re- lationship with Sardana to advance its goal of ruining 'the Indian'," Sardana's lawyers told a New York court in their application. "Before the board would consent to the pro- posal, it insisted that Sardana agree to numerous fi- nancially damaging concessions at Vienna Airport, such as changes in the merchandise mix, reduc- tion of shop footage and the return of retail shops to VIE – concessions that were completely unrelated to the JFK Airport Terminal 4 project. Agreeing to these concessions would lead to sig- nificant economic harm for Sardana and his business." In October 2002, VIE signed a memorandum of understanding with Sardana to extend his lease at VIE until 2012, and the businessman now expected VIE's consent on the JFK project to be forthcoming. But the VIE board delayed its consent, to fi- nally withdraw from the project com- pletely, with no explanation offered to Sardana. "Unbeknownst to Sardana at the time, the real reason for the refusal to support Sardana's bid was the board's overwhelming (and com- pletely unjustified) desire to ruin 'the Indian'," lawyers said. Then, two days before Christmas 2002, VIE decided to terminate all leases with the Sardana Group at Vi- enna Airport. After a two-year legal battle, VIE forced a settlement on the financially weakened Sardana. Sardana scrambled to locate a part- ner with the necessary financial re- sources for JFK, taking on board Aer Rianta, an Irish company that oper- ates duty-free airport shops. The joint venture was to be a financial disaster: by 2009 it lost more than $10 million, forcing Sardana to buy out Aer Rian- ta. Since April 2015, Sardana no longer occu- pies retail space at JFK. 'Dark Clouds' masterplan What was unknown to Sardana was the existence of a "master plan" that came to light years later in 2010, when the Austrian press disclosed the exist- ence of a conspiracy – commonly re- ferred to as the "Dirty Laundry Affair" – initiated by the VIE board in 2004 as part of a secret strategy to destroy Sardana and his businesses. The plot was discovered when crim- inal investigators of Lower Austria raided the offices of Peter Hocheg- ger, discovering there VIE's mas- ter plan against Sardana: the busi- nessman was iden- tified as a "highly reliable business partner" who had turned into a problem for VIE no longer suited to be a serious part- ner for retail trade at the airport. The campaign included "covert" methods to attack Sardana in the media, and for VIE's board members to bad- mouth Sardana with their coun- terparts at other airports. Hochegger had been tasked with the campaign, which he titled somewhat ominously, much like a second-rate paperback, 'Dark clouds above Sardana corporate group'. The documentation for the "dark clouds" dossier was provided to Hochegger by Julian Jaeger, who was then a member of VIE's legal depart- ment, with documents that included detailed and confidential information on Sardana's banking relationships. VIE also appointed Austrian star lawyer Gabriel Lansky, Julian Jaeger's brother-in-law, to contact people in New York and hire private investiga- tors to gather dirt to be used against Sardana. In April 2011, Hochegger testified to police investigators of Lower Aus- tria that his principal source for con- fidential dossiers and information on Sardana as well as his "handler" in this project, was Julian Jaeger, today a member of VIE's Supervisory Board. Hochegger then testified that the campaign against Sardana had been authorized and paid for by VIE – €126,000 for Hochegger and €49,000 to Lansky – which also included wire- tapping the cell phones of Sardana and his family and hiring a private detective to spy on Sardana and his family. Following his testimony, Hochegger wrote to Sardana to apologize for his role: "The Directors of the Vienna Air- port represented you to me as some- one damaging to the Vienna Airport's image as a result of his troubled eco- nomic past and the constant quarrels with the partner Gebrüder Heine- mann [the firm of Heinemann Broth- ers], which is located at the airport. "Due to the efforts of our agency, negative reports appeared in the me- dia, as well as surveillance by a private detective, who was, as I recall, hired by another of the airport's consulting firms." Losing out on Malta airport's retail shops Sardana claims that VIE's campaign against him affected his business op- portunities at other airports. In 2003, Aruba Airport rejected Sardana's pro- posal in reply to a request for retail concepts. And he received rejections again in 2005 from Miami Airport and Dublin Airport, without explanation. In 2001, VIE entered the bidding process for Malta International Air- port. Sardana was invited to present his retail shops concept, which he says was instrumental in VIE's successful bid. But Sardana claims that the VIE board did not allow him to participate in the project. In his affidavit, Siegfried Gangl stat- ed: "Amongst others, Melbourne and Malta airports offered perfect oppor- tunities for VIE Shops to expand but it was indicated to me by the man- agement board of VIE AG that those projects should not be offered to Mr Sardana and his Group of companies. In the absence of signature operations of VIE Shops at Vienna airport, it was virtually impossible to secure conces- sions at other international airports." Vienna rejects Sardana's 'grotesque' allegations VIE branded all accusations levied by Sardana as "completely absurd and unfounded in every way." "Until now Flughafen Wien AG has neither received a lawsuit nor are there any legal indications for such a lawsuit, especially not in New York. Mr Sardana will be sued if Flughafen Wien AG incurs any costs related to this grotesque campaign. "Moreover, this initiative makes a mockery of the numerous creditors who lost millions of euros within the context on the insolvency proceed- ings of his companies in Austria. He would have resorted to legal re- course with Austrian courts if there were any objective evidence." In 2012, VIE cancelled contracts with the Sardana group for various shops, which it said was the result of outstanding payments that had grown to millions of euros, as well as the insufficient stocking of individu- al shops and the failure to complete leased space in terminal Check-in 3. "This step was preceded by lengthy and, unfortunately, unsuccessful negotiations," VIE had said, deny- ing then that there was a campaign against Sardana. "These accusations refer to events that occurred nine years ago, previously made public and the subject of investigations by the authorities." mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Vienna and MIA • FACTBOX Flughafen Wien AG is owned by the city of Vienna and the state of Lower Austria, whose historic links to the Social Democratic Party also play a part in informing who gets to call the shots at Vienna International Airport (VIE). In 2002, VIE formed part of the winning consortium – Malta Mediterranean Link – for the privatisation of Malta airport. MML holds 40% of MIA's shareholding. VIE holds 57.1% of MML, and a further 10.1% shares in MIA itself – the total holding equals 32.9% of MIA. Flughafen Wien is expected to increase its shareholding to 48% to buy out the Canadian company SNC Lavalin, which also has a holding in MML, currently valued at approximately €63 million. 20% of MIA's shares are held by the Maltese government. VIE is Austria's largest airport, handling 22.5 million passengers in 2014. Listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, the company generated revenues of €630.2 million in 2014. Taking out the dirty laundry: lobbyist Peter Hochegger, sentenced to prison for paying bribes to politicians,told Sardana that Vienna International Airport recruited him to carry out the 'Dirty Clouds' campaign against him. Sardana says VIE also employed Julian Jaeger's brother-in-law, the star lawyer Gabriel Lansky (inset), to weigh in on the campaign. Lansky is associated with the hunt for the late Kazakh exile Rakhat Aliyev. Peter Hochegger was told by VIE's chief financial officer Kurt Waniek, that they wanted to 'send the Indian with a nylon shopping bag on a one-way ticket back to India.'