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Vienna (dpa) - In connection with the Wirecard scandal, three alleged escape helpers were arrested by ex-manager Jan Marsalek in Austria.
The public prosecutor in Vienna confirmed on Monday that it was a former member of the National Council of the FPÖ as well as an ex-employee of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT) and a suspended BVT employee.
The investigation was ongoing on suspicion of beneficiary.
The ex-MP is in custody for other investigations and the former BVT employee is now at large.
In the case of the third suspect, it is still unclear whether pre-trial detention will be imposed.
Marsalek, who was in hiding, flew with the help of at least two of the suspects from Bad Vöslau Airport near Vienna to Minsk in Belarus in June 2020, reported the newspapers “Die Presse” and “Der Standard”, citing investigation files.
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In Germany, too, the question of Marsalek's Austrian secret service contacts was raised.
Initially, the Federal Public Prosecutor did not want to rule out the possibility that the ex-manager was led by an employee of the Austrian Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT) as a confidante, according to a response from the Federal Ministry of Justice in Berlin to a request from the Bundestag member Fabio De, which became known in October 2020 Masi (left).
In the meantime, however, the Ministry of the Interior has pointed out that the Federal Public Prosecutor General (GBA) is not conducting an investigation into this question.
There were no sufficient factual indications that "Jan Marsalek's contacts with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism could constitute an act of intelligence agency activity directed against the Federal Republic of Germany or any other criminal offense falling under the jurisdiction of the GBA," it said in December in response to a request from the Left MP Michael Leutert.
From the perspective of the Greens in Austria, the arrests are another piece of the puzzle regarding the relationship between BVT, Wirecard, the FPÖ and Jan Marsalek personally.
The suspicion of a particularly close relationship between those involved is confirmed, according to the Green Party, David Stögmüller.
“Marsalek needed, sought and found politicians with power and officials with access to classified documents.
(...) And what role did Russia and the Russian military secret service, with which Marsalek had extremely good connections, play in this? "
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Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) announced a relentless investigation: "We are systematically taking action and, step by step, by clearing up this criminal case, create a clean restart for the protection of the constitution."
The investigators accuse Marsalek, the former CEO Markus Braun and other suspects of organized gang fraud.
You are said to have tricked banks and investors with falsified balance sheet figures over three billion euros.
The BVT, founded in 2002, is one of three intelligence services in Austria.
Among other things, it analyzes the dangers posed by extremist currents such as radical Islamism and right-wing extremism.
In recent years, the office has been discredited by various affairs.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210125-99-163315 / 2