Vinschger Economic Crime Case Ends Like Hornberg Shooting

by Artur Oberhofer

Karl Zeller brought the good news. “For my clients,” the Merano lawyer says, “it was the best Christmas present; they were overjoyed.”

It’s understandable why those who received the news were happy,as the threat of having to repay a multi-million euro sum had been hanging over several Vinschg families for months. “Some of my clients would’ve faced financial ruin if they were convicted,” says Karl Zeller.

The story is well-known. In late August, the Schlanders financial police finished their inquiry into 19 people – “Operation Solar Eclipse.”

These 19 people, from four different families, installed nine large photovoltaic systems in Silandro and Prad am Stilfser Joch and received almost 18 million euros in state funding for them.

Each of the nine systems cost 300,000 euros.

These state subsidies date back to a time when photovoltaic cells were very expensive – ten times the current price.When Chinese manufacturers flooded the market with cheaper systems, prices fell, and so did the subsidies.

The four Vinschger families had only been recovering the costs of the photovoltaic systems for a few years when they learned about the financial police investigation last summer. They were told the Court of Auditors wanted to reclaim the 18 million euros in state funding. “My clients,” says Karl Zeller, “were exhausted.”

What happened?

investigators checked the photovoltaic systems during a helicopter flight and noticed from the air that not 44 small systems (each with an output of less than 50 kilowatts) had been installed,but nine large (industrial) systems,which qualified for little or no government funding.

The financial police believed the families had tricked the system by splitting the nine large projects into 44 mini-systems to receive