In Austria, another investigation by the public prosecutor's office for corruption is causing a stir, garnished with politically offensive chats from the ranks of the ruling ÖVP party. This time it is about the tax proceedings of an entrepreneur who is suspected of having obtained inadmissible concessions in 2016/17 with relationships with the ÖVP-led Ministry of Finance. The focus there is on the then top civil servant Thomas Schmid, as in the advertising affair in which the former ÖVP boss and Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was overthrown. As far as is known, the new investigations have nothing to do with Kurz. They are nonetheless uncomfortable for the ÖVP because Schmid's cell phone communication shows once again that the Ministry of Finance was viewed as a kind of branch of the party - in this case also as a branch,which is subservient to the "rich".

Stephan Löwenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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The entrepreneur and manager from the automotive supply industry Siegfried Wolf received a notification in 2016 about a back tax payment of around seven million euros plus penalty interest of more than 680,000 euros.

It was about previous income in Switzerland.

Wolf had officially, with the involvement of Schmid and the then Finance Minister Hans-Jörg Schelling (ÖVP), already achieved a considerable reduction in the original claim of around eleven million euros.

So far the facts are undisputed.

But Wolf denied that he otherwise behaved criminally.

Clandestines meeting at the motorway service station

Because the tax office had also made a mistake, Wolf demanded that the penalty interest be waived. The responsible department in the ministry rejected this as legally inadmissible. According to the public prosecutor's office, from whose files the Austrian media quoted, Wolf is said to have agreed with the head of the tax office responsible for him at the time - among other things at a clandestine meeting at a motorway service station - a discount in the amount in question. As a corrupting consideration, he obtained from Schmid that the officer would be transferred to another position she wanted. The specialist department was deliberately passed over. Schmid did not receive any benefit himself, but contributed to a possibly criminal offense.

Wolf stated that he never donated to the ÖVP.

With Sebastian Kurz, who came to the top of the party in 2017, he was at least so highly regarded that he later wanted him to be the chairman of the supervisory board of the federal holding company ÖBAG - here there is again a hub with Schmid, who became the sole director of ÖBAG.

However, nothing came of the position on the supervisory board for Wolf, there are different accounts of the reasons.

Nevertheless, the matter is embarrassing for the party, because it gives the impression that you get perks with the right relationships with ÖVP people.

In a chat with an employee at the ministry, Schmid emphasizes Wolf's wishes as follows: “Don't forget - you hackle (work; Red.) In an ÖVP cabinet !!

You are the whore for you rich (sic!)! "