Grasser, the former finance minister of Austria, was sentenced to four years in prison

The supreme court in Austria dismissed Karl-Heinz Grasser’s appeal against his 2020 conviction on corruption charges and sentenced him to four years in jail on Tuesday.

While upholding the accusations of corruption against Grasser, Austria’s Supreme Court cut the former political figure’s initial eight-year sentence in half.

Grasser was found guilty by a lower court in 2020 of fraud, taking illegal gifts, and fabricating evidence in a case involving the privatization of thousands of state-owned residences. Grasser has consistently refuted the accusations.

Until the appeal, that decision had not been legally binding.

The 56-year-old Grasser, who served as Austria’s finance minister from 2000 to 2007, was previously a favorite of the nation’s conservative right and is wed to a Swarovski heiress.