VIENNA, July 6 (UPI) -- A judge in Vienna has sentenced nine people for their involvement in Austria's biggest-ever banking scandal.
The defendants, who include the former chief executive of the BAWAG bank, were found guilty of causing losses of $2.55 billion to the bank through speculative investments, EuroNews.net reported Sunday.
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They were sentenced from two to nine years behind bars, with some of the sentences partially suspended, EuroNews.net reported.
They were charged with breach of trust, false accounting and fraud over a series of risky trades that began in the late 1990s.
The losses surfaced in 2006. They were linked to the bankruptcy of U.S. futures trader Refco Inc., a BAWAG affiliate.
