Vienna jury convicts ex-Austrian officer of spying for Russia

A jury in Vienna on Friday convicted former Austrian intelligence officer Egisto Ott, 63, of spying for Russia and sentenced him to four years and one month in prison. The verdict found Ott guilty of passing sensitive information to Russian intelligence and to Jan Marsalek, the fugitive former executive of Wirecard, between 2015 and 2020. Ott denies the allegations, and his lawyer has appealed the ruling. The case has renewed scrutiny of Austria’s exposure to Russian espionage activity.

The court also convicted Ott of misuse of office, bribery, aggravated fraud, and breach of trust. Prosecutors said he accessed police databases to collect classified material and personal data, then provided it to Marsalek and to unidentified representatives of Russian intelligence in exchange for payment.

Marsalek, an Austrian citizen, is wanted by German authorities for alleged fraud tied to Wirecard and is believed to be in Moscow after fleeing in 2020. Prosecutors described him as a Russian intelligence asset and said he is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice.

Prosecutors detail alleged data transfers and secure-hardware handover

In court, prosecutors said Marsalek commissioned Ott to obtain a laptop containing secret electronic security hardware used by EU states for secure electronic communications. They said the laptop was then handed to Russian intelligence.

Ott was also found guilty of passing phone data from senior Austrian Interior Ministry officials to Marsalek and to Moscow, prosecutors said. The court heard that the officials’ work phones were recovered after accidentally ending up in the Danube River during an Interior Ministry boating trip, and that Ott copied their contents and forwarded the data.

Motives and wider implications

Prosecutors argued Ott’s conduct was driven by financial motives and frustration at work, rather than ideological alignment with Russia. Ott told the court he was not working for Moscow and said he had been participating in a covert operation in collaboration with a Western intelligence service.

The trial has also brought renewed attention to Marsalek’s alleged activities since Wirecard’s collapse, including separate accusations that he controlled a group later convicted in London in 2025 of spying for Russia. Officials in Austria have previously framed the Ott case as a national security risk.

Further legal proceedings are likely as the appeal moves forward, while authorities in Germany continue efforts to locate Marsalek.