#PanamaPapers: Austrian bank chief implicated in leak resigns

Micheal Grahammer, the chief executive of Hypo Landesbank Vorarlberg, an Austrian bank, mentioned in the massive #PanamaPapers document leak, has resigned.

The bank announced that Mr. Grahammer’s resignation on Thursday came as a surprise.

Austrian broadcaster ORF, one of the more than 100 news organisations that investigated the trove of data leaked from Mossack Ferona, a Panama-based law firm, said the bank was connected to offshore companies through trustees in Liechtenstein.

Austrian financial markets regulator, FMA, is investigating whether Hypo Vorarlberg and another Austrian bank mentioned in the PanamaPapers reports, Raiffeisen Bank International, aided the laundering of funds.

“I remain 100 percent convinced that the bank at no point violated laws or sanctions,” Mr. Grahammer said in a statement.

He claimed that the decision to resign was the culmination of various developments in the past year,

He however admitted that the Panama leak was the last straw.

“In the end, the media’s prejudgement of Hypo Vorarlberg and of myself in recent days was decisive for me in taking this step.”