The cause of the Minibambini kindergartens apparently also occupies the investigative authorities. According to a report by the online portal of the “Kronen Zeitung”, there was a raid on all locations of the kindergartens and at the residences of the operators on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) confirmed to APA in the evening that there were house searches at around 25 locations following they had been approved by the court.
According to the WKStA spokeswoman, the investigations are directed once morest four people who are known by name on suspicion of serious fraud, fraudulent Krida, infidelity, organized undeclared work and forgery of documents. According to “krone.at”, among other things, it might be regarding funding abuse in the millions. Large amounts of documents and data carriers are said to have been secured by late followingnoon. According to “krone.at”, there were also interrogations of kindergarten leaders.
According to the report, money from the Minibambini bankruptcy estate should go to a shopping center in Serbia. The WKStA spokeswoman did not want to comment further on the content.
As a result of a funding freeze by the City of Vienna once morest the kindergarten sponsoring association, the latter had become insolvent. The city took action because the association had been criticized by the city audit office for, among other things, the employment of front companies. The allegations once morest the association, which operated around a dozen kindergartens, were confirmed in a special test, it said. Last Friday, the operating license was revoked from the kindergartens and twelve locations were closed. Since then, places have been sought for the children.
