Civil servant from Liezen convicted as money mule – twelve months suspended
A civil servant in Liezen district provided bank accounts for extortion proceeds. The lay court in Leoben sentenced him to twelve months suspended.
Online romance ended in court: civil servant laundered extortion money
A civil servant from Liezen district opened bank accounts in 2024 for an unknown person through which funds obtained via fraud and extortion on the internet were transferred. According to the Kleine Zeitung, he recently had to answer for this before the lay court in Leoben.
The public prosecutor's office accused the defendant in its opening statement of serious extortion and serious fraud. He had met an unknown person online, built a relationship with them and at their request opened accounts – including with an online bank, in Malta and with a cryptocurrency exchange. Money flowed into these accounts that had been obtained through forged emails sent in the name of the Ministry of the Interior and the Upper Austrian State Police Directorate. Recipients were informed in these emails about allegedly incriminating material – such as child pornography – and confronted with a threat of arrest, which could be prevented by payment.
The defendant knew of the illegal background of the money flows, according to the public prosecutor's office. His defence lawyer saw things differently: his client was "more victim than perpetrator" – lured on social media with the photo of an attractive unknown woman and exploited as a so-called money mule. "When hormones are involved, the brain cells eventually switch off," the lawyer explained. "In the chat logs there are more hearts than letters." The civil servant had even transferred 25,000 euros himself before becoming aware of the criminal background.
Judge Richard Gollner, chairman of the lay court, questioned the defendant in detail. When asked what he believed the accounts were for, he replied: "She told me she runs an online business and needed them for her business." Gollner wanted to know why the person had not opened accounts themselves. "She said she needed accounts in German-speaking areas," the defendant said. Did that not seem suspicious to him? "It did, but she kept promising me money from an inheritance." Did he know about criminal acts in the background? "Not at first, but later yes."
Gollner then classified the facts more as money laundering than as serious extortion or serious fraud – which halved the maximum sentence from ten to five years. He explained to the lay judges the Austrian principle of joint perpetration: anyone who makes only a contribution to a criminal offence is also punished, provided they had a sufficiently concrete idea of the actions of the direct perpetrator.
The witness testimonies made the extent of the damage clear. A farmer from Upper Austria had transferred approximately 327,000 euros through the defendant's accounts to the extortioners. A man from Burgenland paid just over 33,000 euros – roughly a tenth of this sum.
The lay court withdrew to consult and shortly afterwards announced its verdict: twelve months suspended with a probation period of three years. The private parties were referred to civil proceedings. After brief consultation with his lawyer, the defendant waived any appeal – the verdict is thus final.
The case fits into a broader picture: the Interior Ministry's Cyber Crime Report shows more than 63,000 reported cyber crimes in Austria in the past year.
Source: Kleine Zeitung