One week before OMV sold its 21% stake in Hungarian oil company MOL to Russia’s Surgutneftegaz in March 2009, Ruttenstorfer said OMV was planning no such sale.

However he bought €620,000 worth of OMV shares at that time, which gained in value after the MOL share transaction.

Ruttenstorfer has rejected the accusations several times, saying he did not sell the OMV shares, when he could have realised a €45,000 gain on them after the sale of the MOL stake.

Ruttenstorfer will not be indicted for at least two months, according to Austria’s Die Presse. Because Ruttenstorfer is a well-known person, prosecutors will first obtain an opinion from the interior ministry, which takes two months, on average.

Ruttenstorfer bought the shares on March 23, 2009, the same day on which he told Austrian magazine Profil that OMV wanted to keep MOL shares that year. Negotiations with Surgutneftegaz started only on March 26, Ruttenstorfer said. The sale of the MOL stake was announced on March 29."

Source: Hungary Around the Clock.

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