Austria's Sebastian Kurz implicated by former ally in corruption scandal
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Loading... - Alejandro Colombo
- 19 Oct 2022
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They were once close allies, but when the alleged corruption scandal claiming former chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his inner circle bribed Austrian media to publish polls favouring him came out, things went sour.
Thomas Schmid, the former Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance, wants to become a key witness and work on a plea deal with authorities, several Austrian media reported. He could implicate former chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who was a person of interest in corruption investigations in Austria.
On Tuesday evening, the first details of Schmid’s 15-day conversations with prosecutors came out. The politician alleged that when the first information about the so-called “poll scandal”, the allegations that a group of ÖVP politicians inside the Ministry of Finance bribed newspaper Oe24 to publish manipulated polls benefiting Kurz, came out, the former chancellor asked him to take all the blame.
Schmid said that the former chancellor, who resigned after the scandal while still denying his involvement, knew and was a part of the scheme.
“A conversation with Kurz was the starting point for me. For me, it was an order from the next boss, and I was full of drive”, Schmid said on setting up the bribery scheme, according to excerpts of the minutes published by the public broadcaster ORF. Kurz’s lawyer Werner Suppan denied the statements. Read More...
