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The Federal Criminal Police wants to see if the former head of the FPÖ allowed his employees to make cash transfers for private expenses. Strache denies the allegations.
In the matter of the expenses of the former head of the FPÖ Heinz-Christian Strache, investigators apparently want to open the accounts of the former vice chancellor. According to an “incident report,” the Federal Criminal Police asked the Public Ministry to consult the account register, justifying this with testimony that Strache had his employees carry out numerous cash transfers for private expenses.
It is not clear whether the Vienna Prosecutor’s Office will comply with the request for consultation of the account register, dated August 4, or if it has already done so. Since this is a closing act, the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office did not provide any information about the APA request. The prosecutor is currently investigating suspected infidelity against Strache and his wife Philippa, as well as a longtime employee and two former bodyguards. The allegation is that Strache passed private expenses to the party from 2006 to May 2019 using false receipts. The FPÖ joined the process as a private party. Strache and his wife always rejected the accusations.
The investigators justify the request of the Federal Criminal Police to consult the account register, which is now known, with statements from witnesses who have already been interviewed. Consequently, several former employees stated that they had received cash from the then head of the FPÖ for Strache’s private expenses, which was paid by them or transferred on behalf of Strache.
Testimony of former bodyguard R.
According to Strache’s former bodyguard R., “With regard to cash flows from Heinz-Christian Strache, Heinz-Christian Strache’s salary withdrawals and business accounts should be available immediately,” the report said. “For this reason, a consultation of the Heinz-Christian Strache accounts, including those accounts of which he is or was listed as an authorized signatory, with the exception of accounts that can clearly be assigned to the FPÖ, would be necessary to clarify where they are funded. private expenses and living costs were absolutely necessary. “
The damage allegedly caused by Straches in the expenditure matter should, as “Kronen Zeitung” reported on Tuesday, be at least 580,832.82 euros, to the detriment of FPÖ Vienna, the federal FPÖ, the parliamentary club FPÖ and the Club of the Vienna City Hall FPÖ.
However, according to the record available to the APA, this sum could be even higher: “Regarding the amount of damages, it is also stated that the documents presented by Heinz-Christian Strache” or his former employee “largely still have not been prosecuted. ” “Due to the so-called converted documents, the amount of damage will increase significantly,” the researchers write.
Various statements or evidence are listed in the BKA’s application to the Vienna Prosecutor’s Office. According to this, a former Straches employee gave investigators “3 blue files with invoices and documents, of which she claimed were paid in cash by Heinz-Christian Strache,” the incident report says. These documents also contain “Holiday invoices from various tour operators for a total of 69,668.1 euros”. In total, these invoices amount to 134,503.86 euros.
“Banknotes of 50 euros of face value each in cash”
According to the present file, the former bodyguard R. also stated that he had “received cash from a former Strache employee or from the party leader himself so that he (R., note) could make transfers from his account or cash deposits “. Another witness claimed that to settle a bill from an awning company worth more than 5,000 euros in September 2015, he had “received cash from Strache with a face value of 50 euros each,” the investigators said in their report. ; A corresponding receipt was also provided to the investigators. Bodyguard R. also stated in one of his interrogations in early October 2019 that he had bought around 40,000 to 50,000 euros worth of gold coins for Strache from banks and coin dealers in 2016.
The investigators’ request is also interesting because investigative files were released in 2019 according to which a former bodyguard is said to have testified that he saw and photographed a sports bag with large amounts of cash in the Strache company car in 2013. According to media reports at the time, Strache’s former assistant informed investigators of a backpack with packages of 50 euros, also in 2013. According to an advertisement that was also made public at the time, the money was supposed to come from of Ukrainian oligarchs to get a nice term in the National Council. Push.
Strache and his team deny the allegations
Strache had always rejected these accusations. Investigations into the alleged purchase of a mandate were stopped in 2018 on the grounds that the creation of an electoral list by a party was not an official matter and therefore buying a mandate as a bribe was not a criminal offense.
A spokesperson for Team Strache also rejected the allegations, again noting that all invoices had always been processed correctly. The former head of the FPÖ paid all his private bills privately, he said. Strache’s team also noted Thursday that the finances had always been approved by the Vienna FPÖ. And that the president of today’s Viennese FPÖ, Dominik Nepp, as CFO (from 2015 to 2019, please note) was himself responsible for the party’s finances. “Nepp should perhaps dig a little less into old and irrelevant files, and rather deal with a little more television duels with HC Strache.”
(THAN)
