Adria Airways CEOs Schuster, Kowarsch face €78 million lawsuit

Former executives of now-defunct Slovenian airline Adria Airways, Arno Schuster and Holger Kowarsch, are facing a €78 million ($77.9 million) lawsuit which has been filed by the carrier’s trustee. The ex-top managers of Adria are accused of breaching the country’s legislation regarding insolvency by implementing questionable accounting while running the cash-strapped air carrier.

The bankruptcy administrator of Adria Airways, Janez Pustatičnik, filed a €78 million lawsuit, one of the largest compensation claims in Slovenia’s court history, on August 26, 2022, according to the local media Necenzurirano. Pustatičnik has asked the Court to place top executives under an obligation to cover the financial damage caused to Adria Airways creditors, suspecting that such a bankruptcy case might be intentional.

The lawsuit follows another attempt from Slovenian authorities to demand accountability from the airline’s management. In 2021, Slovenia’s National Bureau of Investigation filed criminal charges against four individuals for €3.6 million that allegedly went missing from Adria Airways’ bank accounts. Besides Schuster and Kowarsch, the lawsuit also named Adria Airways’ financial advisor Klaus Platzer and Eggo Laukamp, head of procurement at 4K Invest, according to reports in Slovenian media.