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Heinz-Christian Strache and Johann Gudenus, the then greats of the Austrian right-wing FPÖ, sit together with cigarettes and vodka energy.

They joke, flirt with a blond alleged oligarch niece - and - quite frankly - promise corrupt deals.

The so-called Ibiza video turned Austrian politics on its head in May 2019.

It led to resignations, the fall of a government.

And almost two years later, numerous questions remain unanswered about the creation of the secretly filmed recording made public by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and “Spiegel”.

Now the alleged mastermind of the affair has spoken for the first time in a "Spiegel" interview.

Julian H., on whom WELT has already reported in detail, claims: “It was an attempt to prove Heinz-Christian Strache's corruption and unfaithfulness.

And it was the failed attempt to link the video with explosive information from the former bodyguard Heinz-Christian Straches, who had collected evidence of this alleged corruption. "

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H. was arrested in Berlin in December.

The Berlin police attacked the person who had been wanted by a European arrest warrant for over a year, according to his statement in Prenzlauer Berg.

A possible million dollar business

H. asserts in the interview that he did not want to earn any money with the recording.

The lawyer for the said bodyguard of the FPÖ man Strache saw it differently: “The lawyer always assumed that everyone would rave about the video like hotcakes.

He wanted to achieve a minimum of 2.5 million euros so that he could secure the source, the bodyguard, and cover our costs. "

Research by WELT AM SONNTAG also suggests that large sums of money were involved.

The material was offered to numerous interested parties from politics and business.

One person later said that the price for the video was five million euros.

But even “for five euros” she would not have wanted “the dirty material” back then.



After that, the video was offered to at least one Austrian editorial team, presumably still at excessive prices.

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"Süddeutsche Zeitung" and "Spiegel" assert that they did not pay anything for the recordings.

There is no reason to doubt it.

However, evidence suggests that third parties, a group from Germany, put a lot of money on the table for the video to land on these two titles.

How did Böhmermann know about it?

The video was also offered to the German entertainer Jan Böhmermann, H. now confirms.

Before publication by the media, Böhmermann made an unmistakable allusion to the existence of the recording, which caused confusion and speculation.

To this day it remains unclear how exactly Böhmermann knew about the affair.

H. explains that there was a meeting with the ZDF satirist.

“There was a meeting with Böhmermann in Cologne, where he was told the story.

But he said he didn't want anything to do with it.

I woke up a few days later - to report on the strange hints of Böhmermann at the gala ”, so the alleged man behind.

H. said further: “I fell out of the clouds and exploded.

After Böhmermann things got moving rapidly.

I was convinced that publication was now mandatory, also for my protection. "