ESPIONAGE (4): Agent thriller about oil company: The judiciary investigates the brigadier

Due to a contract with the private agent Christina Wilkening, the judiciary initiated investigations against the prominent Bundesheer officer and security advisor Gerald Karner as well as a lawyer. The background is owner turmoil at the Vienna oil drilling company "Petro Welt." This has been occupying the public prosecutor for years. Addendum shows what a - covertly acting - Russian businessman has to do with it. Fourth part of the investigation by ADDENDUM in the intelligence community.

DDR has been history for more than a quarter of a century. However, this did not stop the now infamous private agent Christina Wilkening from Berlin from still using her cover name from Stasi times in 2015. An email signed by "LG Nina" was to have far-reaching consequences.

As Addendum has learned, the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office in Vienna is investigating the "Brigadier retired" of the Austrian Bundesheer and now security advisor Gerald Karner. The strategy expert is well known as a military analyst on radio and television. In 2006, he took leave of absence from the army and moved into the private sector. In 2011, Karner became the managing director of the newly founded security service provider Aventus - a company of the C-Quadrat founder and current Deutsche Bank supervisory board member Alexander Schütz.

Contracts for 600,000 euros

According to his own statements, Schütz withdrew from Aventus in 2016 - because of the affair with Christina Wilkening, with whom the security company had carried out projects. In the present legal documents, Aventus is even referred to as the main contractor of Wilkening in the period from 2013 to 2015. The security company is said to have paid the private agent 600,000 euros during these years.

The agent, the brigadier, and the lawyer

One of Aventus' projects with Agent "Nina" is now engaging the investigators. The background: In January 2015, Aventus receives a contract from a large Viennese law firm. This represents Maurice Dijols, who was in the process of taking control of the Viennese oil drilling company CAT Oil as part of a - hostile - takeover. CAT Oil is now known as Petro Welt and is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The intense owner turmoil surrounding the acquisition has been keeping the prosecutor's office, courts, and authorities busy ever since - but more on that later.

At the beginning of 2015, Gerald Karner does not carry out the delicate task alone. He brings Christina Wilkening on board as a subcontractor. Officially, she acts as a "business consultant." However, in reality, the 71-year-old lady is active in private information procurement. The fact that one of her sources is a criminal police commissioner in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, who conducts illegal person queries via the police computer for payment, will bring private agent "Nina" a conviction at the beginning of 2017.

Suspicious Calculation

Two years earlier, Christina Wilkening's business model was still flourishing: The CAT Oil project, code-named "Centurion," aimed to investigate the opponents of the new majority owner Dijols and their activities. And before it started, Agent Wilkening sent a "calculation" to Karner by email - signed with "LG Nina." This document is surprisingly candid in places. For example, right at the beginning:

After initial thorough research in

– Germany (ND and LKA Lower Saxony)

– Russia (Kremlin Industrial Agency - Energy Issues / FSB / Tax Authorities and Federal Antimonopoly Service)

(...)

The German intelligence service (ND), a state criminal police office (LKA), as well as authorities and the intelligence service in Russia are not places where private individuals can simply research sensitive information. What does one have to do to obtain detailed information about individuals and companies there? The concrete cost calculation found in the private agent's letter may provide a hint:

External Costs:

2 German authorities 10,000.00 €

Austria 2,000.00 €

(...)

RUSSIA

External Costs (three authorities) 12,000.00 €

(...)

Criminal Complaint in Vienna

"External costs" of more than 20,000 euros at authorities? These are probably not fees for two or three simple registration queries. Christina Wilkening's letter to Karner is cited in a criminal complaint that a reputable Hamburg lawyer sent to the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office in Vienna at the end of 2016. The complaint was filed with us, Addendum. The lawyer from Hamburg, who himself held long-standing organizational functions at CAT Oil until the hostile takeover, formulates a clear suspicion of bribery in the document.

Queries on the police computer

Indeed, a German criminal detective who collaborated with "Nina," conducted person and vehicle queries for the CAT Oil project. He is said to have handed over the results to Wilkening and received at least 3,000 euros in cash from her. This would later - as one of several points - lead to an indictment at the Schwerin Regional Court. Following confessions, Christina Wilkening and the detective were sentenced to several years in prison in 2017, among other charges of bribery or corruption.

Investigations are ongoing in Vienna. The complaint by the Hamburg lawyer was directed, among others, against Karner and the lawyer who commissioned the project. Karner confirms that he was questioned as a suspect a few weeks ago. However, he denies all allegations: "Mrs. Wilkening assured me several times that her sources would always work correctly and within the framework of the law," explained the security entrepreneur. "It was not known to me that Mrs. Wilkening employs a German state detective for person searches." Wilkening was supposed to ensure that "it is ascertained on-site, in Russia, whether the Russian subsidiaries of CAT Oil AG are being sold or not."

Lawyer denies allegations

The files of the public prosecutor's office also contain a written statement, dated August 2017, from the - at least at that time - co-accused lawyer. He also denies all allegations: "Commissioning Aventus was carried out within the framework of the law. (...) It should be emphasized that the commission was exclusively given to the company Aventus. Wilkening was presented to the accused as a partner of Aventus (...)." The internal cost breakdown, including the "external costs," was only seen by the lawyer as part of the criminal complaint.

Client did not pay

Christina Wilkening billed Aventus over 20,000 euros for the "Centurion" project, the original total calculation amounted to 47,000 euros. However, according to Karner, "nothing at all" was paid because the client - the law firm - did not pay Aventus. According to the lawyer's statement to the public prosecutor's office, "the clients" refused payment because a report delivered "from the clients' point of view" was merely "a summary of information easily available on the internet."

The assessment by the public prosecutor's office is still open. A spokesperson confirms in response to an Addendum inquiry: "I can confirm that this complaint was received by us and is part of the investigation. We must first determine whether the allegations contained in it are accurate. That is the purpose of the investigation."

Match for Millions

Thus, the complaint was included in the investigations regarding CAT Oil that have been ongoing since 2015. The starting point back then was complaints from the new management after the takeover in 2015 against former key people - including those from whom Agent Wilkening gathered information. The main accusation: individual former executives had diverted money. All have always denied all allegations.

It is therefore a match between the new CAT Oil management and the old, which sought to prevent the takeover. It's about a lot of money. The turmoil extends up into the owner sphere, with Addendum now having a document that provides completely new clues about the origin of the conflict. This document leads us directly to the international dimension of this story. And one thing is clear: In a game of this magnitude, Karner and Wilkening are at best minor players.

Putin's Pipeline Czar

For many years, a large question mark has hovered over CAT Oil. Who is really behind the oil field service provider? After all, it is a publicly traded company. There should be a high level of transparency. And yet, there has long been a suspicion that there could be much more behind the complicated ownership structure than meets the eye. As it turns out, this impression was correct - at least in the past. The consequences are still being felt today.

In June 2016, the magazine News reported on a possible involvement of former Transneft boss Semyon Vainshtock in CAT Oil. Transneft is the Russian state oil pipeline operator. A ruling by the "Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce" on June 13, 2017 shows that Vainshtock did indeed have significant economic interests in CAT Oil, that he was able to conceal them from the public despite the IPO, and that he likely facilitated the takeover at the end of 2014 himself.

According to the ruling, there had been a collaboration between Vainshtock and a German business trustee at least since 2000. The latter had been introduced to Vainshtock by a personal acquaintance and business associate whom the Transneft boss trusted. It was important for Vainshtock that his ownership in the “CAT Group” remain anonymous. The business trustee and the business associate helped him with this. STDMETHODCALLTYPE:false