These are currently being carried out “because of the use of funds by associations for infidelity”, the WKStA confirmed on Saturday reports from “profile” and “Standard” to the APA. In September of the previous year, investigations by the WKStA into covert FP party donations about several party-affiliated associations were stopped at all. At that time, the former party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who had boasted about circumvention constructs in the Ibiza video, as well as the former club leader Johann Gudenus and former member of the National Council Markus Tschank were affected by the investigation. The investigators focused on the associations “Patria Austria”, “Austria in Motion”, “Economy for Austria” and the “Institute for Security Policy”.
Stumbled upon “Educational Payouts”
Tschank and three other former club officials are, according to joint research by “profil” and “Standard”, still listed as accused, as they reported on Saturday. According to “profil”, it should specifically concern the suspicion of infidelity in connection with the use of donations in three associations. For one of these associations, “Austria in Motion”, “profil” and “Standard” have now been able to inspect court documents that are also available to the “Ibiza” committee.
The charitable association, founded in 2015, has collected a total of 382,776 euros from 38 donors by 2019. When the “Ibiza” scandal was exposed in May 2019, most of it – 341,725 euros, parked in the club’s account – was said to have been there. According to the reports, the investigators are said to have stumbled upon “informative payments” in the amount of 17,429.90 euros.
The majority of this (12,229.90 euros) ended up with Tschank and another official of the association, who is also listed as a suspect, according to “profil”. Tschank did not comment on details in a statement according to “profil”, but referred to the “proper resolutions of all association members and corresponding contracts” on which every payout is based. According to Tschank, infidelity could not have occurred simply because “all members of the association always gave their consent to a certain asset disposition”. Incidentally, since 2017 he has only been working as a legal advisor to “Austria in Motion”, he told “profil”.
In response to an APA request from the WKStA, it was not confirmed that a request made by the public prosecutor’s office for corruption at the Vienna Criminal Court in April 2021 to open the association account had been rejected by “Austria in Motion”. The WKStA referred to ongoing investigations, so one cannot comment on it. According to a decision of the criminal regional court of April 29, quoted by “Standard” and “profil”, the suspicion of breach of trust against the accused “did not reach a sufficient degree of suspicion”. According to the responsible judge, the facts pointed out by the Corruption Prosecutor could be criminally relevant as “chaperones” and / or donation fraud. The WKStA does not conduct any investigations “as far as can be seen”, the “Standard” quotes from the decision.
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