Tetron affair

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The Tetron affair includes possible money laundering and commission payments in connection with the conversion to a digital radio system for authorities and emergency services , which the Austrian Ministry of the Interior announced in 2003 during the reign of Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel ( ÖVP ). The incidents around the order of the second consortium called TETRON are currently being gradually clarified.

trigger

In the summer of 2011, in the course of the investigation into the Telekom affair, numerous dubious cash flows from the part-state Austrian Telekom Austria (TA) to political decision-makers and parties were uncovered that go back to the year 2000. According to the former board member of the former TA Festnetzgesellschaft and key witness Gernot Schieszler , part of the payments of 1.1 million euros in 2008 went to Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly as Tetron commission . The funds were hidden in the accounting department in a Central and Eastern European project.

chronology

First call for applications - autumn 2001

Federal Minister Karl Schlögl prepared the tender for a digital radio system for the police and gendarmerie in the 1990s . In 1999 alone the Ministry of the Interior spent 127 million schillings on pilot tests. In February 2000, TetraCall Errichtungs- und Betriebs GmbH (a subsidiary of Wiener Stadtwerke, Siemens and Frequentis) was awarded the first private Tetra license for the greater Vienna area. In autumn 2001, the Ministry of the Interior put out a digital, tap-proof “ radio system for authorities and organizations with security tasks ” (BOS) under the project name “Adonis” . On April 12, 2002, the Ministry of the Interior awarded the contract to the “master-talk” consortium, consisting of the general contractor Siemens Austria , as well as Raiffeisen Zentralbank , Wiener Stadtwerke and Verbund . Planned completion in 2005.

New tender - June 2003

Immediately after the change of government in 2002 , there were intensive contacts between the cabinet of Interior Minister Ernst Strasser (ÖVP) and the lobbyist Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly , who is also close friends with Strasser's cabinet chief Christoph Ulmer . Strasser is said to have met with Mensdorff-Pouilly at the “Jagdstammtisch” - an ominous club with numerous prominent members - on November 25th, the day after the National Council election, and shortly afterwards on December 7th, 2002, together with his cabinet, “went back to a hunting weekend” (Quote from an email from the head of cabinet Christoph Ulmer on December 7, 2002). The Green MP Peter Pilz saw in the repeated hunting invitations incompatibility and prohibited acceptance of gifts for officials.

In June 2003, Strasser withdrew the master-talk contract due to alleged technical defects and a lack of financial evidence. The subsequent legal dispute (an arbitration procedure was contractually agreed) will be settled on September 30, 2006 through a payment by the Republic of Austria of 29.9 million euros in damages to master-talk. The parties have agreed not to disclose the outcome of the proceedings.

After the new invitation to tender, on April 12, 2004 the contract was awarded to a consortium of Motorola (terminals) and Alcatel (transmitters). Telekom Austria is also briefly involved and is said to have collected 50 million euros for the provision of the network infrastructure. Reinhard Schnakl , who comes from the 200-inhabitant town of Luising in Burgenland and grew up in the immediate vicinity of Mensdorff-Pouilly's property, will be the deputy overall project manager . He had only recently started his service in the Ministry of the Interior.

Facilitation Payments

Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly's role as mediator

As it turned out in 2004, Mensdorff-Pouilly invited Strasser, who was responsible for the award, along with his cabinet (including Christoph Ulmer, Mathias Vogl, Michael Kloibmüller, Oskar Gallop and Philipp Ita) to hunt Luising at least twice at Telekom Austria's expense. He billed the state-affiliated telecommunications company for two 14 and 17 night hunting trips in the amount of 169,460 euros.

In October 2005 he also invited a select few people to a “media seminar” on his “Dalnaglar castle” property in the Scottish highlands , among them: Telekom board member and Schieszler's former mentor Rudolf Fischer , Alcatel board member Harald Himmer (also ÖVP Federal Council ) and the former FPÖ politician Walter Meischberger . The former general secretary of the Federation of Austrian Industries and TA board member Markus Beyrer was there on this trip to Scotland as well as numerous hunting trips in Luising. TA paid for his flight costs of 21,800 euros. Nevertheless, Beyrer was later in his new role as ÖIAG boss, together with the telecommunications supervisory board Franz Geiger, who was also involved in the scandal, charged with clearing up the TA affairs.

Origin of the funds

As far as is known, Mensdorff-Pouilly's lobbying activities were paid for by the victorious consortium of Telekom Austria, Motorola and Alcatel. From the first two companies mentioned, a total of more than five million euros should have flowed to Mensdorff-Pouilly.

Telekom Austria confirms the payments of seven invoices between July 30 and December 22, 2008 totaling 1.1 million euros to the account of Mensdorff-Pouilly's Hungarian company MPA Budapest, for which they cannot provide any consideration. According to the key witness Schieszler, this money is supposed to be the "success commission" for the Tetron brokerage. In principle, Telekom Austria's payments were largely processed through its lobbyist Peter Hochegger , whose payroll included numerous other politicians such as Karl Blecha , Ernst Strasser and Walter Meischberger. According to a Deloitte report commissioned by TA boss Ametsreiter, Hochegger is said to have received a total of 38 million euros from TA in the years 2000 to 2010, see telecommunications affair .

Motorola paid Mensdorff-Pouilly 2.2 million euros for unclear services. Its German branch was established in 2005 with the Panamanian mailbox company Valurex Int. SA, which is attributed to Mensdorff, signed a Representative Agreement to "actively promote" Motorola end devices. Valurex was thus able to share in the success with five percent per device sold, but a maximum of 2.6 million euros.

The third consortium partner Alcatel is said to have given the ÖVP three million euros via the industrial association.

The Strasser cabinet

Employees of the Ministry of the Interior under the leadership of Ernst Strasser benefited from the tender in many ways . The head of the cabinet, Christoph Ulmer , who has been on parental leave since 2004 , received a lucrative Tetron consultancy contract from the Ministry of the Interior after the successful new tender through his agency “Headquarter” . Bernhard Krumpel, a long-time employee of Ernst Strasser in Lower Austria and Vienna, becomes Tetron's managing director in 2004. His successor, Wolfgang Gattringer, who is responsible for the Tetron tender, has been working for the winning consortium member Alcatel since 2007. Strasser's advisor Michael Kloibmüller climbed the career ladder and became head of cabinet under Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP). After the FPÖ took over the department, he left the Ministry of the Interior to become a board member of the Lower Austrian WET (non-profit housing association). He is said to have intervened at TA on August 11, 2011 in favor of Mensdorff-Pouilly and threatened TA general director Hannes Ametsreiter with “inconvenience” because of the educational work. In particular, the issues of Mensdorff and real estate should no longer be mentioned at Kloibmüller's behest.

After his ministerial work, Strasser himself received an order from Hochegger worth 100,000 euros for positioning advice in Bulgaria .

Cost and schedule

The federal government pays for the radio network according to the degree of coverage. In 2011 it was 17 million euros. When fully expanded, Tetron will cost 40 million euros annually for 25 years, i.e. one billion euros. In 2008 the Interior Ministry had spoken of 33 million euros a year. The consortium itself writes in its balance sheet that the "additional costs from the past and for ongoing operations to be borne by the company itself as well as special expenses due to an increased monthly service fee from the customer [note. the Republic of Austria] since July 1, 2009 as well as a flat-rate advance payment of two million euros. In fact, the former Austrian Minister of the Interior and current Minister of Finance Maria Fekter (ÖVP) granted further millions in grants for the network expansion in Lower Austria (5.8 million euros) and Styria (7.3 million euros).

"Tetron" was originally supposed to go into operation in 2005. At the end of 2011, however, the radio network was only ready in Vienna, Lower Austria, Tyrol and the cities of Salzburg and Klagenfurt. After the allegations became known, Salzburg and Carinthia stopped the introduction of Tetron in their federal state. The planned new completion date is 2015.

Current investigations

Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office

The public prosecutor's office in Vienna is currently investigating suspicions of money laundering and bribery on the basis of a statement by BZÖ MP Stefan Petzner in 2009. There are investigations against Kloibmüller on suspicion of abuse of office and betrayal of secrets . In February 2012, at the request of the judiciary, the parliamentary immunity committee recommended the extradition of the ÖVP Federal Councilor Harald Himmer in order to enable further investigations.

US Securities and Exchange Commission

In September 2011, the US Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating Mensdorff-Pouilly and Motorola. From April 2004, the American electronics group reportedly instructed the Austrian lobbyist between 2.2 and 2.6 million euros for "improper payments" (holidays and gifts) to political decision-makers in Europe and the Middle East, including the Tetron Influencing tender.

Court of Auditors

In August 2011, Interior Minister Mikl-Leitner commissioned Josef Moser , the then President of the Austrian Court of Audit , with a special audit of the procurement processes.

Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry

At the end of 2011, a corruption investigation committee was set up in the Austrian parliament to clarify the political responsibility of the Tetron affair, as well as numerous other scandals since the black-blue government took office .

Court ruling

In connection with the payments made by Telekom Austria to him, Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly was sentenced to three years of unconditional imprisonment and repayment of 1.1 million euros in damages on December 14, 2015 for breach of trust, and Rudolf Fischer to one year of unconditional imprisonment. Both filed an appeal .

Vocation and ankle bondage

In October 2017, the Vienna Higher Regional Court reduced the sentence to two years imprisonment, 16 months of which were conditional.

On March 23, 2018, the condemned person was granted the unconditional part - 8 months - of his custodial sentence to wear an ankle cuff with a 3-meter GPS , i.e. house arrest in Luising, subject to further conditions.

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  1. ↑ a b c The standard of August 29, 2011, Telekom Affaere: Police radio Tetron Do not have a contract with Valurex
  2. ↑ Tetra: with high-tech radio chance of mega-order ( Memento from September 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ http://www.bmi.gv.at/cms/BMI_OeffigteSicherheit/2000/03/Artikel_08.aspx
  4. ↑ http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XX/NRSITZ/NRSITZ_00171/fnameorig_114331.html
  5. ↑ a b c Die Presse from August 29, 2011, official radio "Tetron": Expensive and belated
  6. ^ Rohde & Schwarz press release of August 19, 2002, New nationwide police and security radio network in Austria
  7. ↑ a b c d e format of September 5, 2011, Caught in the corruption swamp  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.format.at  
  8. ↑ Die Presse from September 16, 2011, “Spendenlauche” from Alcatel via IV to ÖVP
  9. ↑ Die Presse of September 17, 2011, Jagdgesellschaft - Shops below the high stand
  10. ↑ a b c d e profile from September 10, 2011, Telekom deception
  11. ↑ DerStandard from June 24, 2008, A few newbies to warm up
  12. ↑ a b c Die Presse from August 30, 2011, Telekom affair: Court of Auditors examines "Tetron" award
  13. ^ Profile from September 17th, 2011, neighbor in need
  14. ↑ Ö1 morning journal of August 26, 2011, http://oe1.orf.at/artikel/284620
  15. ↑ a b Falter No. 40/11 of October 5, 2011, p. 14
  16. ^ Wiener Zeitung of February 24, 2012, Im Strudel der Affären
  17. ↑ Profile from September 24th 2011, Who is Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly really?
  18. ↑ Format of January 23, 2012, New Background on the Telecom Scandal
  19. ^ The time of September 1, 2011, If the Chancellor only knew!
  20. ↑ FAZ from September 7, 2011, side show cleared
  21. ^ Kurier of October 19, 2011, "First denials after Hochegger allegations"
  22. ^ The standard of August 27, 2011, Telecom affair is heading for parliament
  23. ↑ a b c Profile from September 3, 2011, “Inadmissible Payments” ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.profil.at
  24. ↑ Die Presse from September 16, 2011, bribery_Alcatel-prueft-PilzVorwuerfe
  25. ↑ Der Standard from April 1, 2011, Tetron: Strasser had a spark
  26. ^ Profile of February 19, 2011, Oh Panama
  27. ^ Courier of October 7, 2011, first denials after Hochegger allegations ( memento of October 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ^ Der Standard of September 13, 2011, Shrouded Expense Explosion at Tetron
  29. ^ Die Presse from September 12, 2011, ÖIAG boss was on the hunt with Mensdorff-Pouilly
  30. ↑ DerStandard from October 6, 2011, Mikl-Leitner: "Unbearable and a shame"
  31. ↑ DerStandard from February 24, 2012, U-Committee-Extradition-from-OeVP-Federal Council-Himmer-recommended
  32. ↑ DerStandard from September 3, 2011, US authorities are investigating Motorola and Mensdorff-Pouilly
  33. ^ Wiener Zeitung of March 14, 2012, The crucial question not resolved
  34. ↑ Manfred Seeh: Three years imprisonment for lobbyist Mensdorff-Pouilly , Die Presse , December 14, 2015, accessed on December 17, 2014
  35. ↑ DerStandard of December 17, 2015, Mensdorff appeals against a sentence of three years imprisonment
  36. ↑ DerStandard from December 23, 2015, Fischer appeals against judgment in the Tetron trial
  37. ↑ Ankle cuffs for Mensdorff-Pouilly orf.at, March 23, 2018, accessed March 23, 2018.

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