Former BZÖ politician and current PR adviser Stefan Petzner is due to appear before the Vienna Regional Criminal Court on Wednesday for serious fraud. According to the indictment, he allegedly stole social benefits between May 2019 and September 2019 by illegally withdrawing nearly 7,000 euros.
The public prosecutor has already filed a complaint against the former confidante of Jörg Haider. The application will be heard on June 7 at the Vienna Regional Criminal Court.
The allegations relate to the period between May 2019 and September 2019. According to the Penal Code (StGB), Petzner risks a prison sentence of up to three years in the worst case (according to Article 147 StGB) in the event of serious fraud.
Petzner is surprised at the charges in May, because the cause was years ago: he was reported to the AMS in 2019, and in the same year, the AMS contacted him after checking to record the receipt of a payment of almost 7,000 euros. clear. He then presented his entire income, after which no one reported to him.
“This is totally incomprehensible to me”
Suddenly, years later, a complaint had been made, “that is completely incomprehensible to me,” Petzner said. An initial check by his lawyer showed that the chargeback was justified and he was “ready to deal with it immediately,” he stressed. “There was a mistake,” stressed the former spokesman for the former Carinthian governor Jörg Haider. There was no intent.
“Try To Hit Me”
But Petzner was also critical: He thought the case was “very, very strange” because he revealed everything and there were no complaints, and four years later someone “made up” an act. “I’m getting tired of when Petzner is on it, people seem to want to hit me.” According to his lawyer Meinhard Novak, Petzner “contributed to finding the truth” during the interrogation and handed over all documents. “He didn’t want to cheat on anyone,” Novak emphasized. His lawyer is seeking an amicable settlement.
Order situation suffered during the pandemic
Only at the beginning of May did it become known that after the bankruptcy of his company Petzner Communications e. U. a recovery plan has been established. According to the creditors’ protection association AKV, Petzner justified the bankruptcy with reduced work capacity due to health problems and the collapse of the order situation in the corona pandemic – but also with enormous costs due to a wide variety of legal proceedings. For example, he was in court because of the election brochure of the Carinthian BZÖ.
Source: Krone
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