Former Austrian intelligence officer collaborated with the FSB and Marsalek

Last Friday, policeman Egisto Ott, who previously worked in the Austrian Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism, was detained in Austria. Prosecutors charged him with collaboration with foreign intelligence services to the detriment of Austria, major fraud, abuse of official position and data, violation of official secrets and concealment of evidence.

German media are publishing details about Ott’s case on Thursday and Friday. The newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, broadcaster WDR and Profil magazine, citing the arrest warrant for Ott, report that he is accused of long-term collaboration with the FSB. Ott was detained in the Austrian state of Carinthia. He is currently in a pre-trial detention center in Vienna. It is reported that he partially admitted guilt.

According to media reports, the Vienna prosecutor’s office received information about Ott’s activities from the British intelligence service Mi6, which uncovered a spy network in London operating under the leadership of Jan Marsalek, an alleged agent of the Russian intelligence services. After analyzing more than 80,000 chat logs, British investigators found numerous indications of Ott’s activities in favor of the FSB.

From January 24 to February 18, 2021, Ott was already in a Vienna pre-trial detention center on suspicion of transferring secret information to the former manager of the Wirecard concern Jan Marsalek, who is now hiding in Russia. However, Ott was then released and was able to get a job with the police. German media write that Ott helped the FSB gain access to databases of Austrian and other Western intelligence services for seven years. Under the pretext of investigating planned terrorist attacks, Ott was able to look through intelligence databases of Italy, England, Turkey and Cyprus.

According to German media reports, the FSB ordered Ott to verify lists of wanted persons, data from registration departments at the place of residence and issuing driver’s licenses, criminal registries and credit card information systems. In total, Ott collected information about more than 250 individuals.

Among other things, Ott transferred information about former FSB officer Dmitry Senin to Russia. Viennese investigators are convinced that Ott received direct instructions from Moscow. A photograph of Senin with his wife and children was found in his house. The policeman sent the FSB a list of visitors to the Turkish hotel where Senin was vacationing, as well as fingerprints from the yacht on which he was located.

According to Spiegel, Ott also passed on information about investigative journalist Christo Grozev, who previously lived in Vienna. After the theft of a laptop and flash drive in his Vienna apartment, Grozev moved to Berlin for security reasons and has been working for this publication since March 2023.

Investigators in Vienna also established that Ott sold the FSB data from the office phones of several employees of the Austrian Ministry of Internal Affairs and at least two laptops with a special security system. According to German media reports, Ott received a large monetary reward for them.

The Austrian Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to answer journalists’ questions. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer convened the National Security Council on Tuesday. Süddeutsche Zeitung emphasizes that this is the largest scandal in the history of the Austrian intelligence services. According to the publication, in 2018, the Directorate for State Protection and Counterintelligence Services of Austria was expelled from the so-called Berne Club, an unofficial meeting of Western intelligence agencies. Neither has shared information with Vienna since the CIA received indications that Ott was passing classified information to Russia.