Vienna (Reuters) – Austrian intelligence official Egisto Ott is facing a criminal case, accused of accusing of corruption and surveillance of Russia by providing encrypted laptops and leaking sensitive information, prosecutors said Friday.
Ott, who previously worked in the now-discontinued federal office to protect the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT), was then the major domestic intelligence agency in Austria, was arrested in March 2024 on suspicion of spying.
Ultra denied all wrongdoing. His attorney declined to comment Friday.
Vienna prosecutors said in a statement that they filed cases against OTT and an unidentified police officer, alleging crimes include working for intelligence agencies or supporting intelligence agencies to harm Austria, bribery, abuse of office and breach of official confidentiality.
The statement said Ott was accused of supporting an unspecified Russian intelligence agency by “collecting secret information and large amounts of personal data from police databases between 2017 and 2021 with the aim of transmitting it to Jan Marsalek and an unknown representative of the Russian intelligence service”.
It added that OTT allegedly received payment.
Marsalek is the former chief operating officer of German payments company Wirecard, which collapsed nearly $4 billion in a scandal in 2020. Marsalek has been running ever since. The London court found this year that he held a circle of Bulgarian spies working for Russia in the UK.
Ott is also accused of providing an unknown person with the so-called SINA-S laptop on Behest in Marsalek, which includes hardware used by the EU government to secure communications in exchange for 20,000 euros ($23,000). It added that the laptop was subsequently handed over to Russian intelligence agencies.
The allegations and evidence have been on the way to the Austrian Marsalek orchestrated Russian espionage in his home country and operated a dual agent in his domestic intelligence services. Given his escape status, no one represents Marsalek in this matter.
The issue was also introduced in last year’s parliamentary elections, where several parties accused the far-right Liberal Party (FPO) of being dangerously pro-Russian, which is denied.
The FPO ranked first in the election, but was unable to form a ruling coalition. The Conservative BJP now leads a three-way coalition government with other centrist parties.
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(Reported by Francois Murphyediting) Frances Kerry
