A secret agent in the service of the corporations and her trail to the BVT

As on February 28 of this year a large-scale raid was carried out at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) and documents were seized in the private residences of some suspects, a narrative quickly emerged that leaves the unbiased observer astonished: The new authorities in the Ministry of the Interior, led by the former, notorious former FPÖ general secretary Herbert Kickl, were said to be forcefully taking over power in the sensitive agency.

Search: the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT). (Screen ORF)

The Ministry of Justice, in the person of its Secretary General Christian Pilnacek, informed that it would investigate whether the proportionality of this operation had been observed. To secure the investigators, officers from the intervention team to combat street crime were used, according to initial reports, the operation must have played out like the storming of a building complex occupied by hostage takers. So it was evidently not as bad as that. Also, the fact that the Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice was not informed about the search, seen as a scandal by some journalists who traditionally cooperate well with the top jurist.

As later turned out, there was a simple reason for this: Pilnacek had met with some of the later suspects in a downtown bar before Christmas. The peculiar planning of the operation may have been related to the fact that at the heart of the BVT case is a network of officials in the ÖVP's sphere of influence, led by the long-standing, now accused chief of staff Michael Kloibmüller, who has allegedly operated in some cases in a criminally relevant manner. It involves data sharing and other forms of abuse of office. It is not excluded that the shared information may have benefited the media at times as well.

Recommendation: BVT Cup from Amazon.

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So, in the BVT case, it is actually about political networks that could have used the agency's privileged access to sensitive domestic and foreign data for their own purposes. In one case, this led to the suspension of an official who had cooperated with a German private agent, who plays a previously underexposed role in the entire BVT case. Our research team has taken on the lady - Christina Wilkening, code name "Nina" - and examined the relationships of the former Stasi informant and journalist who grew up in Berlin, Karlshorst neighborhood, with Austrian major corporations and political figures.01