Just over a week ago, Austria’s ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, now in the service of US investor Peter Thiel, tweeted to his compatriots: He sees himself as “completely relieved” by statements by pollster Sabine B .before the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA). The public prosecutor’s office is investigating the allegation of advertising corruption, i.e. the creation of surveys on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, which the ÖVP is said to have actually used under Kurz. In return for advertisements from the ministry, the partly embellished surveys are said to have been published by the Austrian media company. Kurz, whom the investigators suspect as a “designate criminal” who was in on the whole thing, resigned in October.
When he recently celebrated and insisted on his innocence, the testimony of B., who had been briefly arrested last October, had just become known. She had admitted all the allegations and also revealed a few more details, but said she only knew the chancellor from passing.
Now, on Wednesday, a second key figure in the investigation into advertising corruption was arrested, which makes the ex-chancellor’s statements seem even more hasty than they might have been: former family minister Sophie Karmasin, who was a member of the government from 2013 to 2017. The public prosecutor confirmed on Thursday that Kurz and nine other people from his environment as well as three associations, including the ÖVP, are still being investigated for breach of trust, corruption and bribery. Now investigations into illegal agreements and money laundering have also been added.
Karmasin was apparently questioned on Thursday; her lawyer could not be reached. In a press release from the WKStA, there is talk of “risk of crime and blackout”. It is quite possible that Karmasin will now unpack about her contacts with Kurz in the context of the investigation.
Ordered and paid surveys
The arrest apparently follows specific details in the statement by pollster B. She had confirmed that she had ordered and paid for surveys from the Ministry of Finance, inserted questions for the ÖVP and adjusted the results – and then forwarded the studies to the Austrian media company for publication. Ex-Family Affairs Minister Sophie Karmasin, herself the owner of a polling institute for many years, brokered the orders from the start and received a commission of 20 percent on sales, which was billed through her husband’s company.
The cooperation began in 2013 and continued when Karmasin was Minister. The client and contact person in the Ministry of Finance were Secretary General Thomas Schmid and press spokesman Johannes Frischmann, who later switched to Kurz as press spokesman.
Advertisement corruption is also a key issue in the parliamentary committee of inquiry into ÖVP corruption, which began its surveys on Wednesday with the appearance of Chancellor Karl Nehammer. On Thursday, the short-term finance minister and current head of the financial market supervisory authority, Eduard Müller, was asked to do this. He should state whether and how he was involved in assignments with a political context. When asked by a Green member of parliament whether he had commissioned studies on party-political issues during his time as finance minister in the government of experts in 2019, he could not remember. Müller said he was surprised that the Ministry of Finance had apparently commissioned a study on his own performance as a minister.
The committee should also deal with appointments that have been adjusted to party-politically opportune applicants. The most well-known example so far is the application of the ex-Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance, Thomas Schmid, for the board position of the state investment company. He is said to have formulated the advertisement himself according to his biography. On Thursday, SPÖ MP Jan Krainer presented Eduard Müller with the text of the advertisement for his post as head of the Financial Market Authority, which he believes may have been specially modified for Müller’s application. Müller rejected this as an insinuation.