A multimillionaire business manager with gun manufacturer Glock has been jailed for theft.
The businessmen, named only as Antonio H. because of local privacy laws, worked for the Austrian gun maker in Uruguay.
He had amassed a fortune of more than five million USD (four million GBP), including a luxury villa, and was earning a salary of over 8,000 EUR (7,200 GBP) a month.
But it was apparently not enough for the 55-year-old father-of-four who tried to add to his fortune by stealing commissions due to local dealers in the South American country.
In total, he helped himself to some 313,676 EUR (284,000 GBP) and he was arrested when he turned up for a meeting in the Austrian capital city of Vienna.
Police charged Antonio H. and he subsequently appeared in court in the city of Linz in the Upper Austria state.
The court heard he was the general manager for the company, Glock America Uruguay S.A., in the Uruguayan capital city of Montevideo until June 2016.
He used different bank accounts and fake companies that he controlled in order to siphon off some of the commission payments that should have been paid by the Austrian gun maker to local agents.
Antonio H. was jailed for two years after pleading guilty in court, with 16 months of the sentence suspended.
Because he has already spent eight months in investigative custody, and because prosecutors have not appealed against the sentence, he is expected to be allowed to leave jail shortly to return to his family.
His reputation however is ruined.
Glock is best known for its handguns which are used by armed forces and law enforcement organisations worldwide, especially in the US.
The company has been the target of multiple embezzlement schemes involving high-ranking officers of the company or others closely related to the company.
Investigation of these cases brought to light questionable financial dealings and a complicated ownership structure hidden behind a string of shell companies in tax havens around the world.
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Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub-Editor: Angjela Trajkovska, Agency: Central European News
4 million in the bank and he can’t stop himself stealing another 200 grand?