For the law enforcement authorities, he is an alleged accomplice in a major fraud case, the accused retired pastor sees himself as a victim. The judiciary is investigating serious commercial fraud once morest a former priest (67), who was suspended from the diocese last year due to the allegations.
In order to financially support a gambling addict criminal (52), who used to be a student in the religious class of the clergyman and who has a relevant criminal record, the former pastor is said to have cheated 32 older women for a total of 430,000 euros. In addition, the younger man is said to have damaged seven women by 470,000 euros. The police are assuming a total loss of 900,000 euros.
The final police report is currently being viewed, confirms Florian Roitner from the Linz public prosecutor’s office of the ongoing investigations into the clergyman and the criminal.
“The former student exploited the relationship of trust with my client,” says attorney Oliver Plöckinger, the ex-pastor’s defense attorney. The 52-year-old lied to his old religion teacher and said that his mother had died, that he now had to pay off a lot of debts, but then there was an inheritance worth millions, but unfortunately he might not yet access the trust account, the 52-year-old said have made the 67-year-old believe, so Plöckinger.
The case started in the summer of last year. An 85-year-old filed a complaint in a parish in the Perg district, where the former pastor worked as a pastor from 1988 to 2006: the former pastor had loaned her 24,000 euros, but never paid the money back.
The investigators gradually came across other victims who are said to have been asked for loans by the 67-year-old: He is collecting money for a long-time friend, which he needs to pay for a funeral or to process an inheritance. “My client didn’t keep a cent for himself,” emphasizes Plöckinger. The cleric’s student is now in prison in Stein. He confessed to having received money from the pastor.
It is not the first time that the 67-year-old priest has been investigated: In order to help another man financially, he has borrowed money from members of his former parish in the Salzkammergut in the past and even reached into social pots, in the end 200,000 euros were missing . At that time, the diocese paid for the damage and deducted money from the pastor’s salary. The public prosecutor’s office in Wels obliged the clergyman to do 120 hours of social service and in return, in 2018, waived charges.
In the parish in the district of Perg, where the pastor worked from 1988 to 2006, there was great surprise and dismay: “I always had the highest opinion of him because his social commitment was so great,” recalls a former local politician.
Diocese informed the parishes
The diocese became aware of the current allegations of fraud last year, says Michael Kraml, spokesman for the Diocese of Linz. “He was then relieved of his duties, which resulted in his retirement. He is no longer allowed to hold church services and no longer be active in pastoral care, ”said Kraml in the OÖN interview. In addition, all parishes in which the accused was active were informed with the appeal not to lend him any more money. All relevant information had been sent to the police. The case runs “across Upper Austria,” says Kraml.
Robert Stammler
