Suspicious Club – Kickl appears in explosive chat files for the first time

Heinz-Christian Strache and a real estate agent friend by the name of Siegfried Stieglitz are currently standing before the Vienna Criminal Court. It’s about corruption/bribery. Under turquoise blue, the Strache-FPÖ helped Stieglitz to a commissionership at Asfinag. In exchange for donations, the researchers suspect. There were donations, as the trial has revealed so far. Subject: “As agreed”. A ruling is expected on July 29. Strache and Stieglitz protest their innocence, the presumption of innocence applies.

There was also talk of an association close to the FPÖ called “Austria in Motion”, to which Stieglitz, among others, made a donation. Now logs are appearing from the WKStA, which is interested in the case. The “Krone” has phone calls from FPÖ politician Hans-Jörg Jenewein, which the WKStA says may be relevant to the ongoing hearing against Strache/Steglitz. Interesting: the name of Herbert Kickl, who was until then “uncontaminated”, also appears in the files.

Excerpts from the explosive minutes of the WKStA, which are available for the “Krone”:

The aftermath of Ibiza
Immediately after the Ibiza video was published, the “Austria in Motion” association was suspected of having served the FPÖ as a vehicle for secret party funding. In the video, which forced Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache to resign and split the governing coalition, Strache mentioned an association to which donors could pay large sums for the celebration in the presence of a supposedly wealthy Russian woman. In this roundabout way, they should not have to be made public as party donations.

So far so good – now it gets a little complicated. The former FPÖ MP Markus Tschank was the cashier of this association. He also had to testify in the Ibiza U-committee in this case. Strache named him in his current process as the club’s operational figure.

During investigations against former FPÖ MP Hans-Jörg Jenewein (who had allegedly received information illegally from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism), a recording of a conversation during a raid was found, which was the first time also involved FPÖ boss Kickl in building this association.

The Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office typed the tape and handed it over to the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office for possible investigation. For example, Jenewein Tschank gave tips about which questions he could expect in the U-committee and how he should behave.

Meet in Kickl .’s office
According to the records, Tschank told how the association “Austria im Motion” was founded in 2015 at the request of Strache. So where did that happen? In the office of FPÖ chief strategist Herbert Kickl. Tschank told Jenewein: “At the time we sat in federal office with Herbert Kickl and discussed it and said, look: if you have found an outside association and the association has its own purpose (…) what should not happen is that the money, if there is a club donor, that the money is then used for party purposes.”

“Herbert came up with the name”
And Tschank continued: “Then Herbert also came up with the name ‘Austria in Motion’.” Tschank tinkered with the statutes and statutes and then the association was founded. For a long time nothing happened.

Hardly any money came in – until 2017, when probably the most important election campaign for Strache and Kickl took place. National Council elections – the FPÖ on the rise. Incidentally, also the year in which the Ibiza video was made.

“And Then It Began”
In 2017, a contract was signed between the agency “St. Stephens” and the party. But a contract was also signed between the agency and the club. For every donation the agency brings in, 20 percent commission was donated to the association. The record says: “And it started. And then there were such huge (…) amounts coming in. Very, very regularly. Lots of small amounts too. Goldfinch for example.”

“We fell from all the clouds”
Tschank was surprised how the backers got the association’s account number – and told Jenewein, “Without ever meeting him, you understand? And I didn’t know if it was the agency, Strache himself, anyone.”

When the Ibiza video appeared, Tschank had the club send the documents. “When we saw what had come in, we were all blown away.” After that, an office was quickly rented.

Tschank then decided to refund all amounts because he already had a bad feeling. That shouldn’t fool him.