He was the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing and was up to mischief all over Austria for years. More than 100 victims entrusted the supposed auctioneer with furs, gold jewelry, carpets and paintings – there were never any auctions. The coats ended up in the cellar, the pieces of jewelry mostly with pawnbrokers. Detention!
The suspect German’s officially registered auction houses were used exclusively for camouflage – to keep up appearances and to lull potential victims, who were baited by newspaper advertisements, into safety. Because the leased valuables were not auctioned off as a result.
Fur coats ended up in the basement
After the 43-year-old had collected a cleaning fee of between 150 and 200 euros per fur coat, the pieces all ended up in plastic bags in his basement on Nordwestbahnstrasse in Vienna-Leopoldstadt.
Total damage in the six-figure range
Most of the jewelery was sold by the suspect at pawnbrokers. More than 140 such frauds – spread across Austria with total damage in the six-figure range – are currently on the investigators’ table. And so investigators paid the German a “visit” and found more than 600 fur coats in his cellar.
And the financial sector was also cheated by the alleged fraudster: for years the suspect illegally used the minimum income fund. Custody!