Background
Strasser, Ernst was born on April 29, 1956 in Grieskirchen, Austria.
Strasser, Ernst was born on April 29, 1956 in Grieskirchen, Austria.
Doctor of Laws, University Salzburg, 1981.
Strasser was Federal Minister of the Interior of Austria between 2000 and 2004. Strasser has been the president of the Austro-Russian Friendship Society (Österreichisch-Russische Freundschaftsgesellschaft) since 2003. He took care of "energy projects in the new European Union member countries in Eastern Europe" and reportedly enjoyed a salary of 500,000 euros per year.
He led his party in the 2009 European Parliament election.
Der Standard newspaper"s investigations in Ernst Strasser found that Strasser has many business holdings and listed some of these activities. Strasser founded Consulting, Coaching & Educating-GesmbH (CCE) in 2005.
lieutenant is a one-man company 100% owned by Strasser. Foreign the first two years, the CCE recorded a profit of around 380,000 euros.
When the newspaper studied the holdings in May 2009, more recent data was missing from the commercial register.
The company owns stakes in various other companies. One company, Business Consulting & Development GmbH, is said to have imported olive oil from Syria. Another company had links to Hungarian bribery investigations.
Strasser"s CCE owns stakes in Russland-Connection Anteile as well as Firmen Advisory Partners (registered in Innsbruck), Konti Holding (registered in Wien) and Expert Management Beratung Russia (registered in Vienna).
On 20 March 2011, Britain"s Sunday Times reported that three MEPs, including Austria"s Ernst Strasser, had accepted offers of up to 100,000 euros ($141,000) per year in exchange for proposing amendments in the European Union parliament. Austrian vice-chancellor and Österreichisches Volkspartei (Austrian People's Party) leader Josef Pröll had called for the deputy"s "immediate resignation from all political posts," describing his behaviour as "unacceptable".
After initially fighting the claims, 54-year-old Strasser announced his resignation on Sunday, noting: "I have decided to take this step because there has been a campaign against me in Austria" and this was "damaging the People"s Party."
On 14 January 2013, Strasser was sentenced to 4 years jail.
Like Strasser, his cabinet secretary Christoph Ulmer is also a senior member of the Austro-Russian Friendship Society and went to become Executive Director of Civil Engineering-Oil Gastrading AG, an energy company owned by Vienna Capital Partners. He was a Member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2011.