"Our friend" in the BVT

Explosive Marsalek chats brought Ott into custody

The fugitive ex-Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek is also said to have had a hand in the Ott case.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Kirill Kudryavtsev, eumostwanted.eu, Krone KREATIV)

The ex-Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek, who has gone into hiding, has now also brought ex-constitutional protection officer Egisto Ott into custody via detours. In chats seized by British authorities with a Russian spy arrested in Great Britain, Ott and his former superior at the BVT, Martin Weiss, are heavily incriminated.

The chats were forwarded to the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office together with several reports - the last one arrived on March 13 - from Great Britain. They show that Ott "systematically" provided the Russian secret service with secret, strictly confidential facts and findings from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as well as personal data from police databases. In any case, the public prosecutor's office is basing its arrest order on this.

"Evacuation" of ex-BVT department head to Dubai orchestrated
This shows that Weiss had close contact with Marsalek and the spy Orlin R., who is now imprisoned in Great Britain, as head of the espionage department at the now dissolved Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT). Weiss is described as Ott's "contact person and client". In a chat with R., Marsalek, who is said to be working for the Russian secret service, describes Weiss as "our friend" and explains that he had organized his "evacuation" to Dubai. Weiss is safe from the Austrian authorities there because there is no extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates.

Ex-BVT man Egisto Ott was remanded in custody on Monday.

(Bild: stock.adobe, Krone KREATIV)

Cell phone handed over in the Vienna apartment of Ott's ex-son-in-law
The chats also reveal that on June 10, 2022, explosive documents were handed over in the Vienna apartment of Ott's ex-son-in-law to men commissioned by Marsalek for transport to Moscow. These were the mirrored cell phones of three top officials of the Ministry of the Interior. The phones had been "victims" of an accident in 2017. A canoe capsized during a trip by the Ministry of the Interior and the smartphones fell into the water. As a result, an IT technician from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was asked to repair the service cell phones.

The devices subsequently ended up with Ott. He is said to have tried unsuccessfully to have them analyzed in the autumn of 2019, got them back and finally handed them over to the Russian secret service in his ex-son-in-law's apartment. On August 12, 2022 - just under two months after the devices were handed over - a courier sent by Marsalek is said to have delivered an undisclosed amount of cash to the same address - apparently in return for the cell phones.

"Dirty laundry types" brought 20,000 euros for laptop documents
In the same year, men associated with the Russian secret service turned up at the address of Ott's ex-son-in-law. On November 19, 2022, they allegedly received a laptop with secret documents not intended for the public and paid 20,000 euros for them. In the Marsalek chats, there is talk of "laundry guys" who are said to have brought the money to Vienna on Marsalek's behalf. Marsalek told Orlin R. that the laptop had been taken "to Lubyanka" - the headquarters of the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB.

Ott, in turn, is said to have systematically queried police databases when gathering information for Marsalek and the Russian secret service and to have claimed a false connection to the BVT. He is alleged to have "tapped" British and Italian sources using requests for mutual legal assistance. Ott denies all the allegations, but the Vienna Regional Court assumes that there is urgent suspicion and that there is a risk of the offense being committed and a risk of concealment. He was remanded in custody on Monday.