Karl-Heinz Grasser

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Karl-Heinz Grasser (born 2 January 1969 in Klagenfurt) is a former Austrian politician (non-party, until 2003 FPÖ). From February 2000 to January 2007 he was Austrian Finance Minister in the federal governments Schüssel I (ÖVP-FPÖ) and II (ÖVP-FPÖ and BZÖ respectively). In 2016, he was indicted in a criminal trial in which he was arrested on 4 May 2016. In December 2020, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Live life
Grasser’s parents, who had joined the FPÖ, operated a car trade in Carinthia. Karl-Heinz Grasser passed the AHS-Matura in 1987 with distinction at the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Gymnasium in Klagenfurt and achieved the Magister degree by the following study of applied business administration in 1992 at the University of Klagenfurt. His diploma thesis is titled The Swiss Small Company – Civil and Tax Law Foundation as well as Forms and Problems of Legal Practice.

In 1992 Grasser became acquainted with Jörg Haider, to whose political circle he was henceforth counted. In the same year he became scientific expert for tourism policy and parliamentary assistant in the parliamentary club of the FPÖ. In 1993, he received the positions of Managing Director of the Freedom Academy and Equal Secretary General of the FPÖ.

From 1994 to 1998, Grasser was a deputy governor in the Carinthian state government under governor Christof Zernatto (ÖVP). This was followed by a move to the private sector to Magna International, where he was Vice President for Human Resources and Public Relations. In the same year, Grasser's first marriage was divorced. From 1999, he was also Managing Director of Sport Management International (SMI), which belongs to the Magna Group. Until the end of 1999, Grasser was also a board member of the Sir Karl Popper Foundation, of which he is a member.

2000–2003
In 1999 Grasser returned to politics as a candidate of the FPÖ. After the formation of an ÖVP-FPÖ coalition under Chancellor Schüssel as a result of the National Council election in 1999, he was praised as Finance Minister. His appointment came as a surprise after Federal President Thomas Klestil refused to inaugurate Thomas Prinzhorn as Finance Minister because of his xenophobic remarks.

In autumn 2002, Grasser resigned as finance minister due to the “Knittelfelder Putsch”, in which the FPÖ party congress delegates including Jörg Haider turned against the members of the FPÖ government – at the same time as the then Vice Chancellor and FPÖ Federal Party leader Susanne Riess-Passer and the then club chairman Peter Westenthaler. These events prompted the ÖVP to call new elections.

2003–2006
After the National Council elections in 2002, Grasser resigned from the FPÖ and was praised in the new cabinet Schüssel as a non-party finance minister. Although he was not a party member, he was subsequently replaced by Austrian leading media such as Austria Presse Agen