On Tuesday, the broker, who is said to have established contact between ex-FPÖ club chairman Johann Gudenus and the "decoy," the previously unknown woman appearing as a Russian oligarch, spoke out.
In an interview with the Puls 24 channel, Serbian-born Irena Markovic, who works at Lifestyle Properties more info about this here: Irena Markovic Ibiza-Affäre, not only tells about her relationship with Gudenus and his wife but also describes the contact made by lawyer M. and her meetings with the alleged Russian oligarch.
"Looked harmless"
"To me, it actually looked quite unobjectionable", nothing would have struck her, the broker said. The decoy had "a perfect appearance," spoke very good English and Russian, and it never occurred to her that it was a trap, she said. With her step into the public eye, Markovic wants to counteract the "many rumors, because I have nothing to hide," she says, according to Pulse 24.
Decoy asked targeted questions.
Markovic then also drove with the alleged oligarch to the forestry company that she and Johann Gudenus wanted to broker. Apparently, the decoy had prepared well and knew well about forestry. The alleged oligarch asked specific questions. "You only ask such questions if you know about forestry operations, about forests, about hunting, " says Markovic in the interview.
She only learned about the Ibiza video on May 17, when the case became public in Austria. "At that time, Ms. Gudenus called me and told me what had happened," Markovic says. She was shocked and completely perplexed.
Irena Markovic is considered a dazzling figure on the Viennese party scene. She has been organizing luxury events for years and now runs a real estate company. For months, there has been speculation in various media that Markovic established contact between the Viennese lawyer M., who is considered the suspected mastermind of the Ibiza video, and Johann Gudenus, and that she could therefore also be considered an accomplice. However, the SOKO Ibiza only leads her as a witness and not as a suspect.
Playing figures in the Ibiza scandal.
The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office has "already achieved significant investigative successes" in the Ibiza video case. Seven suspects are being investigated. According to current suspicions, at least two people should have been involved in the planning and implementation of the recordings - but no criminal organizations or foreign intelligence services informed the StA Tuesday in a release.
Seven people are in focus.
The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office is very cautious with information in this case - because it is a classified file. The fact that now some details were betrayed could be due to the fact that the persons taken in U-arrest have a right to file inspection.
The seven people are being investigated on suspicion of misuse of sound recording or listening devices, forgery of specially protected documents, attempted extortion, and serious fraud, among other things. Since the start of the investigation in May 2019 - which ran in "excellent intensive cooperation" with the SOKO set up by the Federal Criminal Police Office - there had been 40 interrogations, 15 house searches, and 36 account openings, and more than a dozen European Investigation Orders had also been sent to the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany, as well as a request for mutual legal assistance to Switzerland.
"Unsuccessfully" offered to several people.
Whether the three arrested, who is now in pre-trial detention, were involved in the making of the video is still under investigation, he said. Currently, they are suspected of trafficking in narcotics and serious fraud, "especially since they are alleged to have sold false information to the operator of a homepage," among other things.
The video had been qualitatively improved in a sound studio known to the StA, the prosecution reported. Afterward, the "putting into circulation" had been tried: The video is said to have been offered "unsuccessfully" to several people for sale, and "sums in the millions were demanded" for it. However, there was no indication that criminal organizations or foreign secret services were involved in the planning or production of the video.
In the further course of the proceedings, among other things, the numerous seized data carriers are now to be evaluated. The court's decision on the objection of the lawyer involved against the seizure of documents and data carriers during a house search in his office in August is still pending.
