Wolfgang Kulterer, former Hypo Alpe Adria Bank management board president, was transferred to the pre-trial custody on Sunday after he was arrested on Friday morning on suspicion on malfeasance in the bank, according to the Austrian APA news agency.

After interrogating him, the investigating judge in charge of this case granted the request by state prosecutors to set detention for Kulterer on grounds of the risk of escape, removal of evidence and repetition of crimes.

Kulterer is suspected of embezzlement and approval of risky loans.

If found guilty, he can be sentenced to up to ten years in prison.

Kulterer's lawyer Ferdinand Lanker on Monday was quoted by APA as saying that the procedure against his client was scandalous and politically motivated.

Commenting on the arrest of Kulterer who seems to be involved in issuing risky credits in Croatia, Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on Saturday that given various information that had surfaced in the past years, special attention had to be attached to financial wrongdoing.

It is important to us to get to the bottom of things, Kosor said.

"I am confident that the Chief State Prosecutor's Office and other Croatian institutions will be included in the case. I am confident that this time we will get answers relatively fast. The government eagerly awaits answers," Kosor said.