The entrepreneur Siegfried Wolf has – after the threat of a fine – promised to come on Wednesday. Above all, he should answer questions about a suspected illegal tax reduction for him. The former finance minister Hans-Jörg Schelling (ÖVP) testified after him on the same subject.
Wolf had intervened in the Treasury because of an additional tax payment. On the day of the so-called final meeting between the financial auditors and Wolf’s tax consultants, the former ÖBAG boss Thomas Schmid wrote to Schelling: “We reached an agreement with Sigi today. 75:25. He pays between 7 and 8 million euros. Still has to be calculated exactly. “He called me several times and wanted to get down to 6. That was impossible for us to intervene during the ongoing negotiations. I think our financial management has moved on this deal and both sides should be happy.”
“Please delete SMS immediately”
Even before the deal – which ultimately didn’t come about – Schelling should have been in the know, which is also substantiated by chats. If the large company audit insists on its point of view, Wolf will “just have to fight it on appeal,” said the former finance minister, asking Schmid: “Please delete the SMS immediately.” In mid-March, it became known that Schelling was listed as a suspect in the case by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA).
The WKStA’s agreement with the former finance minister states that he gave instructions to cabinet employees for “irrelevant” motives in order to provide entrepreneur Wolf, as an important supporter of the ÖVP, with financial advantages. It is to be expected for the first day of the survey that Wolf’s donations to the party will also be an issue. In any case, both persons providing information – Wolf and then Schelling – have agreed. Schmid has also been formally invited for this day – but there is still no answer from him to the u-committee.
The head of the legal group in Alexander Van der Bellen’s presidential office, Georg Frölichsthal, is the first person to provide information on Thursday. The ÖVP invited him because he had allegedly expressed skepticism about the execution in the Ministry of Finance because the files were not delivered to the Ibiza investigative committee. After him it is the turn of the head of the financial procurator, Wolfgang Peschorn. He will probably be asked about several topics at the same time.
Source: Nachrichten
