Trial begins for infidelity: German TV star in court

The charges relate to Grill Heaven GmbH, based in Vösendorf (Mödling district), whose managing director was Töpperwien. The suspect is said to have paid for private purchases with company money in 2021, among other things. He pleaded not guilty.

Payments via company account
Töpperwien is said to have made payments via the company account or company card – for example in DIY stores or on the Internet. In the opening statement, the public prosecutor spoke of 18 assessments. According to the indictment, the 50-year-old is said to have also given employees work orders for private purposes, including clearing rubble and bulky waste. In addition, according to the indictment, the 50-year-old is said to have outsourced social media activities that fall under his employment contract to his company in the US, and the GmbH is said to have had to pay for this. The damage was stated here at 7,700 euros.

Objects of the GmbH are being embezzled
The suspect is also said to have embezzled items from the GmbH, including knives, barbecue spices and charcoal. According to the court, the damage here amounts to just over 1,000 euros. The suspect was accused by employees of the company, according to the prosecutor.

Töpperwien’s lawyer stressed that this was partly due to misuse of the company credit card or debits from the company account. Even though the procedure was “sloppy”, “we are far removed from criminal law”, the lawyer said.

Material used for private purposes
Töpperwien reported that he had moved the moving boxes he had bought at a hardware store from Baden to a house in the Wiener Neustadt district and then returned them to the company “undamaged”: “I didn’t really know that would be a big deal. Borrowing company vans was common practice within the company, and he paid for the petrol – as well as the disposal of bulky waste – with his own money. He denied that he had bought building materials, switches, cleaning agents, a garden hose and a washbasin bracket for private purposes. The goods were used, among other things, for the barbecue school and the roof terrace of the company’s Vösendorf location; “something was always being built there”. Employees helped him move, but this happened outside working hours.

“It was a click”
In two or three cases, he mistakenly selected the wrong payment method, which resulted in the company account being debited. “That was a mistake,” the defendant said. “It was stupid, it was really stupid,” he said. In one case, he immediately explained this ‘in detail’ and ‘transferred the amount immediately’. The termination took place a few days later. He also accidentally paid for recessed spotlights via the company, but he only discovered this in the criminal complaint.

Regarding the embezzlement charge, Töpperwien stated that he paid for the knives. He gave or sent the barbecue spices and a knife sharpener to people for social media posts. For Instagram stories, he used items such as barbecue charcoal, oil cans and spatulas.

Regarding allegations related to billing through his US company, the defendant explained that this was how his current wife would be paid for her work at Grill Heaven GmbH. “That was one of the biggest shocks for me, that what was actually clear and discussed, was not allowed to be correct,” he explained. At the end of November 2021, Töpperwien was dismissed by his employer.

Allegations “almost unbelievable”
The suspect described the allegations as “almost unbelievable.” A manager at the company told him he would “finish him off”: “Neither I nor my wife expected that to actually happen.”

Several witnesses who worked for Grill Heaven GmbH in 2021 were heard. The accountant had found invoices from Amazon or products such as light switches strange. According to her statement, fees for the disposal of bulky waste were paid from the company fund, but Töpperwien denied this. According to witness statements, the company van could also be used for private trips outside working hours after consultation. Grillers were sometimes shipped in moving boxes, says a warehouse employee. According to the information, Töpperwien had a tense relationship with one of the company’s shareholders.

If convicted, a hearing by a single judge could result in a prison sentence of up to three years. The company, active in the barbecue trade, entered the proceedings as a private participant with more than 8,800 euros. According to the defense lawyer, the Lower Austrian Labor Chamber calculates that approximately 14,000 euros in salary is still outstanding. If this amount is not paid to his client, a lawsuit will follow, the lawyer says.

Töpperwien became known, among other things, through the formats “Goodbye Germany! The Emigrants” on VOX and his participation in the RTL “Jungle Camp” 2019. The 50-year-old, who emigrated to the US, was arrested in Germany on the basis of a European arrest warrant and extradited to Austria. He was released in exchange for milder measures.