2024-03-30 21:37:45
The espionage scandal, in connection with which six Bulgarians were arrested in Great Britain, was also carried over to Austria.
The Austrian police have arrested the former associate of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism of Austria Egisto Ott, who worked for the director of Wirecard Jan Marsalek, reports Der Standard. He is suspected of selling to Russia’s Federal Security Service in 2022 information extracted from the smartphones of three high-ranking Austrian officials.
The information about the transmission of the content of the smartphone is said to have come from the UK a few weeks ago. There they are investigating Marsalek as the head of a group of Bulgarian agents who spied for Russia in Great Britain. British investigators have discovered numerous chats between Marsalek and his subordinates.
The stolen smartphones belonged to Michael Kleubmüller, who for years was chief of staff to the minister of the interior, Michael Takacs, now director of the Federal Police, and Gernot Meyer, director of the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum.
Access to the three mobile phones was obtained after an accident in 2017. Then, during a trip on the MIA line, a boat carrying the three capsized and the phones got wet. The devices were handed over for repair to an IT specialist from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, who apparently copied the content and passed it on to Egisto Ott. He is also among those under investigation.
Kleibmüller’s smartphone chats were leaked to the press and led to a scandal and corruption investigation against him and former interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka.
The contents of Takacs and Mayer’s smartphones have not been made public. Ott’s group probably failed to open it and read it. Perhaps that is why the phones were handed over to the Russian secret services.
Ott himself has been under investigation for about seven years and has been charged with various crimes. Prosecutors suspect him of abusing his position as a constitutional protection officer to access and sell data. The buyer is the former head of department at BVT Martin Weiss, who in turn was on the payroll of Jan Marsalek. According to the Vienna prosecutor’s office, a second person was also arrested. However, the spokeswoman for the authorities, Nina Busek, did not want to say who he was for the moment, writes “Now”.
Investigations by STANDARD, “Spiegel” and ZDF recently revealed that Marsalek has likely had contacts with Russian intelligence officers for at least a decade. He may have already worked with Russia when he was on the board of German financial services provider Wirecard. After the spectacular collapse of the company, the Viennese fled to Russia, where he now lives under a new identity and apparently continues to work for the Russian services. He has always denied spying for Russia. He was already in custody in 2021, but was then released.
It wasn’t until the collapse of Wirecard and Marsalek’s escape that Ott and Weiss had been selling information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for years. The thousands-page investigative file reveals who the two were “spying on”. They include the partner of Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, a Kazakh opposition figure and Bulgarian investigative journalist Hristo Grozev. Ott’s previous work as a police attache in Italy may also have been useful in the execution of his orders.
In light of current events, the Austrian Greens are calling for the convening of the National Security Council. “The step-by-step unraveling of Russia’s networks in Austria shows a frightening picture. The findings of the commission of inquiry clearly show how political parties have clearly taken the extended hand of the Kremlin and are working for Russia,” says MP David Stoegmuller. He also asks how the smartphones could have reached Russia and not be noticed for so long, and what will the federal government do against this Russian influence.
Jan Marsalek disappeared in June 2020 along with several billion dollars. The Insider and Bellingcat were able to prove that the crook is hiding in the territory of Russia or Belarus and has long had ties to the Russian special services. In March, The Insider told how Marsalek actively cooperated with the private military group “Wagner”, passed on data obtained by European secret services associates working for him, and helped track Hristo Grozev.