He could be the most important witness in the trial against BND agent Carsten L. – co-defendant Arthur E. He doesn’t want to talk about his past life, but his statements still provide some clues.
Arthur E. sits leaning back in the witness chair in courtroom 145a. “Then I’ll tell you how it started,” says the 32-year-old and looks at the presiding judge Detlev Schmidt while spreading his arms.
On three dates in January and February, Arthur E. presented his view of what is probably the largest espionage case in the Federal Republic of recent years to the 6th Criminal Senate of the Berlin Court of Appeal.
Dressed in black in sneakers, track pants and a sweatshirt with the lettering BOSS, the businessman with a shaved head described from memory the stages of his acquaintance with the senior BND employee Carsten L. He sits behind his lawyers in a dark blue jacket and with accurately cut hair Glass box for the defendants.
The 53-year-old writes conscientiously – and remains silent. Both are charged with two counts of serious treason because they are said to have given secret documents and information from the BND to the Russian domestic secret service FSB.
Arthur E. doesn’t show any signs of nervousness, he seems self-confident and talks to his two lawyers. He nods in agreement or shakes his head during the testimony of BKA investigators and a judge from the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). At times he seeks eye contact with the audience.
What the process is about
Carsten L. and Arthur E. have been on trial since December. The BND employee Carsten L. was arrested in Berlin a year earlier. According to the indictment, after the Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022, he is said to have transmitted information that he obtained in the course of his work at the BND to the Russian secret service FSB.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the spied information is a state secret within the meaning of the Criminal Code. The two defendants are accused of treason. According to the indictment, they are said to have received an “agent’s salary” of 450,000 euros or 400,000 euros. Both are German citizens and are in custody.
Incriminating statements about Carsten E.
Arthur E. had already reported his version of events several times – during his stay in the USA during an interview by the FBI, during an interrogation by the BKA after his return flight on January 22, 2023 at Munich Airport and the following day at the BGH in Karlsruhe , when the arrest warrant was presented to him. The BGH judge said that Arthur E. had spoken “readily for printing”. He described the chronological sequence of events “with great precision” and in detail and “absolutely” wanted to comment on the allegations.
Arthur E. is said to have described the reasons to a BKA investigator in October 2023 as follows: He and Carsten L. had “done shit”, we should own up to it and end the whole thing quickly. Carsten L., on the other hand, is said to have suggested to him in a message that Arthur E. was supposed to reach via other prisoners in the Berlin-Moabit prison that he should retract his previous statements and not provide any further information.
But Arthur E. didn’t stick to it in court either. However, while his statements are consistent, which speak for Carsten L.’s conscious and active participation, his statements vary about how he took over the documents at two meetings with Carsten L. in September and October 2022 – on paper or photographed from them documents or screens.
Arthur E. also tried through his lawyer Giuseppe Olivo to ensure that data transmitted from the USA regarding his search queries on Google would not be used as evidence – in vain.
Arthur E. also refuses to be interviewed by Carsten L.’s lawyers and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. Senior public prosecutor Lars Malskies called Arthur E’s statements contradictory and questioned his willingness to clarify the matter.
Senior public prosecutor Lars Malskies (l.) questions Arthur Es’ desire to clarify the matter.
Hotel acquaintance
Malskies pointed out that Arthur E. had been in Russia for several years, although it was unclear how he lived there and whether he might have had “contacts with an intelligence service.” What remains unclear is how Arthur E. was able to go from a Bundeswehr officer to a businessman and afford a jet-set life between Moscow, Dubai, Africa, Munich and Miami, handling hundreds of thousands of euros and, according to his own statements, only traveling with 500-euro bills .
As far as is known, Arthur’s stories begin in 2020, when he claims to have met the Chechen businessman Visa M. in Moscow through a roommate in the Ritz Carlton Hotel. When Visa M. once took him to Germany on his private plane, he realized who he was.
Accordingly, Arthur E. saw M. as a potential business partner for his mining projects in Africa. Visa M. made it a condition for his entry that he would receive an improved status for his existing residence permit in Germany and contacts with German embassies in African countries.
Contacts in Putin’s leadership circle
For Visa M., Russian registers contain two minority investments in his wife’s companies in the Lipetsk region south of Moscow, a food manufacturer and a plastic manufacturer. According to Russian media reports, she worked her way up from a cannery worker in Lipetsk to become Russia’s sixth-richest businesswoman, with baby formula as an important product.
Their factory was so well run that Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev came to visit in 2021. He is the son of Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the National Security Council and one of the hardliners around ruler Vladimir Putin. She was a member of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance and is said to have a property in a posh suburb of Moscow.
Visa M. is said to have contacts in Putin’s leadership. Arthur E. mentioned the Minister of Civil Protection several times as a good acquaintance Visa Ms. This has been Alexander Kurenkov since May 2022. Kurenkov was chosen for the post because Putin knew him personally and considered him best suited for this job, Putin’s press spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time. Kurenkov served in the FSB and in a high position in Rosgvardia, Putin’s bodyguard.
There is little else to be found on the Internet about the businessman Visa M. Two photos can be found that show a man with a round face holding a jar of baby food. Researcher Christo Grozev found that Visa M. is now probably traveling with a false identity. Accordingly, Visa M. used the name Oleg Schischkin for a flight from Moscow to India.
This is supported by the fact that this person was born on the same day as Visa M. and a man with these details does not exist in the Russian passport databases, while Visa M.’s passport number was specified for the booking, said Grozev.
Fateful Meeting at the beach club
Arthur E., in turn, states that he was looking for support in Germany for his acquaintance Visa M. so that he could receive better residence status in Germany. He claims to have found a contact person for this in BND employee Carsten L..
In any case, on September 12, 2022, there was a meeting with Arthur E., Visa M. and Carsten L. in “H’ugo’s Beach Club” on Lake Starnberg, which is said to have quickly become about more. It was agreed that we could do something good for each other, E. stated several times.
According to Arthur Es’ account, Carsten L. understood this to mean providing Russia with secret material from the BND. Carsten L. is said to have handed over documents to his acquaintance Arthur E. twice, which he is said to have immediately brought to Moscow at the expense and organized by Visa M. and handed over to two men, Gassan and Pawel.
According to Arthur E’s description, the two behaved like typical Russian secret agents. They therefore knew everything about his family and appeared aggressively demanding. Pawel had a pistol, a Glock, shown as background music.
According to Arthur E., they were particularly interested in who at the BND had released the material. They also insisted on receiving information about HIMARS and other weapon systems used in Ukraine. Even though Arthur E. was unwilling and unable to deliver both in consultation with Carsten L., several hundred thousand euros are said to have been handed over during a third visit.
In this scenario, Arthur E. claims to have merely been an intermediary who was still surprised that Visa M. had made contact with the FSB agents when, as a Chechen, he had had problems with the FSB. What doesn’t fit into his story: That, according to internet data from the USA, he googled “FSB” and “Pawel” as well as “Pawel Mikhailovich” on July 26, 2022 – on the day of a meeting with Visa M. in Erding, three months before the alleged first meeting with Pavel in Moscow.