Episode 2: The Friendship Society

Summary

Hot Money: Agent of Chaos

Season: Agent of Chaos | Episode: 2 | Title: The Friendship Society

Release Date: June 10, 2025
Host/Author: Pushkin Industries & Financial Times
Duration: ~44 minutes

---

Overview

In Episode 2, "The Friendship Society," Sam Jones delves deeper into the enigmatic figure Jan Marsalek, formerly the COO of Wirecard, whose mysterious disappearance has ties to Russian espionage. The episode unravels the intricate web of corruption within Austrian politics, showcasing a high-stakes sting operation orchestrated by reporter Julian Hessenthaler. This operation not only exposes deep-seated political corruption but also links back to the broader implications of Russian influence in Central Europe.

---

Key Sections

1. The Ibiza Sting Operation

The episode opens with Julian Hessenthaler’s frantic preparations for a clandestine party in Ibiza aimed at entraping Johann Gudenus, a rising star in Austria's radical Freedom Party.

• Julian Hessenthaler (04:47):
  "The dinner was like €4,000 because it was like a private dining room. And then drinks were running up to €10,000, 15,000 that night because everybody was drinking heavily."

Julian's meticulous planning includes hiding cameras throughout the villa to capture incriminating conversations. Despite an initial mishap where footage was lost, Julian persists, driven by the potential impact of exposing corruption.

2. Engaging with the Freedom Party

Julian's interaction with Gudenus reveals the depth of corruption and the ease with which political figures can be swayed.

• Narrator (12:00):
  "Gudenus keeps badgering Julian about this oligarch's niece... What might she be able to do for the Freedom Party?"

Gudenus proposes an audacious plan to acquire Kronen Zeitung, Austria's most influential newspaper, to bolster the Freedom Party's media presence.

• Julian Hessenthaler (12:08):
  "I told him, look, look, look, all good, but this kind of stuff, we need to sit with the boss."

This sets the stage for escalating the sting operation to target higher echelons of political power.

3. The Escalation to High-Level Corruption

As Julian moves his operation to secure interactions with Heinz Christian Stracher, the leader of the Freedom Party, the stakes increase dramatically.

• Julian Hessenthaler (15:48):
  "I cannot even explain it fully, but it was just like a feeling of that's just too much."

The successful bait-and-switch leads to a pivotal moment captured on tape, which becomes the linchpin in exposing the party's corrupt practices.

4. Personal Struggles and Consequences

The emotional toll on Julian becomes evident as he grapples with isolation and the burden of holding explosive evidence.

• Julian Hessenthaler (24:29):
  "I'm carrying a weight you don't. You cannot even really carry. It's much too heavy for you."

This segment highlights the personal sacrifices and mental strain journalists like Julian endure in pursuit of the truth.

5. Uncovering Deeper Connections

Sam Jones’ investigation takes a turn when he discovers links between the Ibiza scandal and Jan Marsalek, deepening the narrative's complexity.

• Sam Jones (28:22):
  "In Austrian politics, never mind fake oligarchs."

Jones identifies connections between the Friendship Society—a suspected front for Russian intelligence—and Wirecard, suggesting Marsalek's broader involvement in geopolitical machinations.

6. Breakthrough Leads and Further Investigations

The episode culminates with Jones securing a critical meeting with a credible source, edging closer to unraveling Marsalek's secretive operations.

• Sam Jones (34:14):
  "Paul Murphy, my editor at the FT, had told me that Marsalek... was somehow involved in Austrian politics behind the scenes."

This sets up anticipation for subsequent episodes, promising further revelations about Marsalek’s role within both the financial and political arenas.

---

Notable Quotes

• Sam Jones (05:26):
  "Because the Ibiza affair would reveal a world that invites people like Jan Marsalek in—a world of corruption and patronage, spy stories. They often tell us as much about ourselves as they do about a rogue individual."

• Julian Hessenthaler (12:00):
  "If I'm sitting here now after a few weeks, where are state actors taken and what does that mean for the country I was born in?"

• Sam Jones (28:30):
  "It turns out that there's even a website for the Friendship Society... a clear indicator of organized fronts for intelligence operations."

---

Insights and Conclusions

Episode 2 intricately weaves a narrative that not only exposes political corruption but also underscores the pervasive influence of foreign entities in national affairs. Through Julian's high-risk sting operation and Sam's relentless investigative journalism, the episode highlights the challenges and ethical dilemmas faced by those seeking to unveil hidden truths. The connection to Jan Marsalek hints at a larger conspiracy, positioning him as a pivotal figure whose actions have far-reaching implications beyond financial fraud.

The episode also emphasizes the personal cost of such investigations, portraying Julian’s descent into isolation and the mental burdens carried by investigative journalists. As Sam Jones uncovers deeper links between Wirecard and Russian intelligence, the stage is set for a broader exploration of espionage, corruption, and the shadowy forces shaping global politics.

---

Looking Ahead

As the investigation progresses, listeners can anticipate further exploration into Jan Marsalek's clandestine operations, the extent of Russian influence in Austrian politics, and the systemic vulnerabilities that allow such corruption to thrive. Episode 3 is poised to delve into these themes, promising more revelations and high-stakes confrontations.

---

This summary is based on the transcript provided for "Hot Money: Agent of Chaos" Season 3, Episode 2: "The Friendship Society." For a comprehensive understanding, listeners are encouraged to tune into the full episode.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Oracle Advertiser]

In business, they say you can have better, cheaper or faster, but you only get to pick two. What if you could have all three at the same time? That's exactly what Cohere, Thomson Reuters and Specialized Bikes have since they upgraded to the next generation of the cloud. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure OCI is the blazing fast platform for your infrastructure, database, application development and AI needs where you can run any workload in a high availability, consistently high performance environment and spend less than you would with other clouds. How is it faster? OCI's block storage gives you more operations per second cheaper. OCI costs up to 50% less for computing, 70% less for storage and 80% less for networking better. In test after test, OCI customers report lower latency and and higher bandwidth versus other clouds. This is the cloud built for AI and all your biggest workloads right now with zero commitment. Try OCI for free. Head to oracle.com strategic that's oracle.com strategic.

[Rinse Advertiser]

These days I can do anything from my phone book, a vacation, order a meal from a five star restaurant, buy and trade stocks. But maybe the most amazing thing I can do is make my dirty laundry disappear and then reappear perfectly washed and folded. I have Rinse to thank for that. I just schedule a pickup in the Rinse app [e-mail], a rince valet comes to get my clothes and before I know it, they're back, crisply folded and ready to wear. They even do dry cleaning which is returned hanging in a nice Rinse garment bag. And with Rinse my satisfaction is guaranteed. If for any reason I'm not happy, they'll reclean my clothes for free. Best of all, Rinse saves me tons of time each week. That's time I get to do something I love versus something I have to to do. So if you want to save loads of time by not doing loads of laundry, remember there's an app for that. Rinse. Sign up now and get $20 off your first order at rinse.com that's R-I N S E.com.

[Narrator]

Previously on Hot Money.

[Sam Jones]

I felt I'd met somebody who was very controlled and confident, who was almost certainly corrupt. I basically said, can we do that again?

[Narrator]

My first thing is I sort of go home and obsessively change every single.

[Sam Jones]

One of my passwords, start checking all.

[Narrator]

The security on my house.

[Sam Jones]

You do start to worry what you've.

[Narrator]

Sort of brought down on your family.

[Sam Jones]

We already knew that there was a big Vienna angle to all this. We just didn't know what the angle was.

[Narrator]

I remember thinking you were mad. I just thought, okay, all right, I'm just gonna go to Austria and start talking to people about Marsalek. But you know, you were right. Julian Hessenthaler races from one supermarket to another. He's sweating. It's not just the heat, he's nervous. He's hosting an important gathering tonight and everything needs to be just right, including.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

The drinks, which everybody thinks super easy, but just go to a supermarket, buy drinks. I was expecting Zubisa and I mean, you can get anything, any high class drink you want. It was actually quite difficult.

[Narrator]

Julian's from Austria, but right now he's on the Spanish island of Ibiza. He's looking for a particular type of champagne. Armand de Brignac. Jay Z owns the brand. It's a cuvet that starts at £300 a pop. Julian knows it's the favourite of one of tonight's most important guests, but it seems to be too exclusive even for this global party hub. And he can't find it. He settles for Roederer, the priciest he can get in this shop. He pays for the drinks from a huge wad of bills in his pocket and lugs them out to the car he's driving, a BMW convertible. He can't afford it, but he needs to keep up appearances. He winces as he heads back along a bumpy track.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

And I remember driving over that all the time, hitting the bottom of the car and thinking, oh, my God, I'm damaging this car so bad.

[Narrator]

Back at the villa he's rented for the party, he puts the drinks in.

[Sam Jones]

The fridge and then jumps in the.

[Narrator]

Pool to cool down and calm his nerves. He showers and dresses for the evening. Then Julian does one final check of the cameras he's hidden around the property. They're in light switches, phone chargers and coffee cups. There's one tucked into a beach bag by the pool. He waits for his guests to arrive.

[Sam Jones]

Julian is a private investigator. Back then, he was 36 years old. He didn't know it at the time, but that day, that party was the beginning of a huge scandal that would change his life forever. I'm Sam Jones, a journalist with the financial times. In May 2019, I arrived in Vienna with a request from my old editor, Paul Murphy, to look for any information I could find about Jan Marsalek, a globetrotting international businessman, a billion dollar fraudster, and someone who had revealed to us that these two things might actually be the least interesting things about him.

[Narrator]

As I touched down In Austria, a.

[Sam Jones]

Political scandal exploded, precipitated by the video footage that Julian would film in that Ibizan villa.

[Narrator]

It was chaos.

[Sam Jones]

And I was barely able to think about Marsalek. No one I spoke to knew him and no one in Austria even seemed to have heard of Wirecard. But as it turned out, this scandal, the scandal I'm going to tell you about in this episode, it would lead me to understand who Jan Mars? Lek really was and what he was doing.

[Narrator]

Because the Ibiza affair would reveal a.

[Sam Jones]

World that invites people like Jan Marslek in a world in which people like him can thrive. A world of corruption and patronage, spy stories. They often tell us as much about ourselves as they do about a rogue individual. They're a dark mirror on the failings of our own politics, our own societies. Julian's video would force the issue of Russian influence in Central Europe out into the open. It would show me a cast of characters who'd been operating in the shadows and begin to reveal how Jan Marsalek moved. Among them, from the Financial Times and Pushkin Industries, this is hot money. Season 3 Agent of Chaos Episode 2 the Friendship Society For Julian, the whole thing started with a drinking buddy, a lawyer friend. One time, after a few vodkas, this lawyer tells Julian about one of his clients. The client, he says, has evidence of something big, scandalous, rampant corruption at the.

[Narrator]

Very top of one of Austria's biggest political parties, the Freedom Party.

[Sam Jones]

The lawyer asks Julian for advice on how he can help his client to prove it.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

I basically told him, look, might be possible to do it, I cannot say, but it's going to take a budget. These kind of things don't happen like on the fly. This needs to be planned, it needs to be paid for. And to my big surprise, sometime later, again, he came back and asked how much money that would be. And, oh, I told him, I think 30 or €40,000 for the start and see where we go from there. And he came and put the money down on the table a few days later.

[Narrator]

The Freedom Party is not a new force in Austrian politics, but it is radical. Fiercely anti immigration. Its supporters are a hodgepodge, united in their opposition to the Austrian establishment. Some are old school, anti clerical liberals, some are German nationalists, some are Nazis. Most are just fed up.

[Sam Jones]

It's not long before Julian finds himself.

[Narrator]

On the top floor of one of.

[Sam Jones]

Vienna's most exclusive hotels, the Grand Hotel Wien.

[Narrator]

I'm afraid this is going to be a bit of a recurrence in this tale, these kind of venues, but then that's the great irony of hotels. Sleep is always the least interesting thing that happens in them. Julian's in a private dining room called the Rotunda.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

It's like out of the Mafia movie. So it's a round room with a round table inside, and on the ceiling you have a fresco. It really looks like out of Scarface.

[Narrator]

It's an intimate gathering.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

I took on a role as some sort of a conciliare. If you want somebody who gives advice, translates.

[Sam Jones]

He's made sure to set up a hidden video camera in case he gets anything incriminating that he can share with his lawyer friend. The guest of honour is a prominent politician from the Freedom Party, Johann Gudenus. He's young, he's handsome, tall, athletic and a bit of a party boy. That's his reputation anyway.

[Narrator]

Gudenis is officially the deputy mayor of.

[Sam Jones]

Vienna, but he's also seen by many as one of the most influential figures in populist politics. What Gudenis is most known for in political circles, though, is is his affinity for all things Russian. He studied in Moscow, he's a fluent speaker. And at the Grand Hotel, he's making small talk in Russian with one of the other dinner guests, a woman who was introduced to him as the niece of a prominent Russian oligarch.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

And so the story that we presented was, okay, we have the niece here of this certain oligarch, and she has about 350 million euros that need to move. We need a way to wash, transfer and clean this money and invest it. And for all that we're looking for friends.

[Narrator]

The thing is, the Russian oligarch's niece, she's not a Russian oligarch's niece. She's Julian's friend. To help her play the part, he's hired bodyguards. She arrived in a Maybach, a top of the range ultra luxury Mercedes that costs more than the house.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

The dinner was like €4,000 because it was like private dinner room. And then drinks were for sure running up to 10, 15k that night because everybody was drinking heavily.

[Narrator]

These expensive details, though, they're not trivial. They're what's going to convince Gudenus that this woman is the real deal. And it works.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

So Mr. Goodenos, within two hours, was talking very openly about certain corruptive steps he was willing to take and certain things he was willing to offer and certain contacts he was willing to provide.

[Narrator]

It's late and the evening draws to a close. Julian is convinced it's been a success. But then he discovers a problem.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

I'd never worked with video equipment before, and I had obviously fucked it up quite well because I had forgotten to put the SD cards to save the memory card. So there was no material, actually. So the evening went very great, but we just didn't have any material.

[Narrator]

He'd fallen into the trap completely. But actually you couldn't prove any of this.

[Sam Jones]

But things don't end there, in part because Julian likes a challenge and thinks that it might still be possible to pull this off.

[Narrator]

But also, Gudanus won't let it go either. He keeps badgering Julian about this oligarch's niece. Would she, for example, be interested in buying some of his land at a vastly inflated price? Of course. What else can he help her with in Austria? And what might she be able to do for the Freedom Party? Gudenis has one particularly striking idea.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

He says to if you got that much money and you're looking to invest, why don't you buy the Kronen newspaper for us?

[Narrator]

The Kronen Zeitung is Austria's biggest newspaper, a tabloid read daily by nearly a quarter of the population. It would be a hugely influential platform for the Freedom Party.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

And he even didn't hold back why he was interested in that. Because he said to me, if you do that for us and you help us with the elections, we can do everything. I told him, look, look, look, all good, but this kind of stuff, we need to sit with the boss.

[Narrator]

Julian tells Gudenos that to make this deal happen, he needs to meet with the leader of the party. And pretty soon he gets a reply. Invitation accepted. And so Take Two begins.

[Rinse Advertiser]

These days I can do anything from my phone book, a vacation order, a meal from a five star restaurant, buy and trade stocks. But maybe the most amazing thing I can do is make my dirty laundry disappear and then reappear perfectly washed and folded. I have Rinse to thank for that. I just schedule a pickup in the Rinse app [e-mail], a Rinse valet comes to get my clothes and before I know it, they're back, crisply folded and ready to wear. They even do dry cleaning, which is returned hanging in a nice Rinse garment bag. And with Rinse, my satisfaction is guaranteed. If for any reason I'm not happy, they'll reclean my clothes for free. Best of all, Rinse saves me tons of time each week, and that's time I get to do something I love versus something I have to do. So if you want to save loads of time by not doing loads of laundry, remember there's an app for that Rinse. Sign up now and get $20 off your first [e-mail]. that's R I N S E dot com.

[Narrator]

When Julian begins to put his new plan together, he's only half expecting it will actually go anywhere. He's pretty sure that now he's moved up the food chain with an attempt to get to the actual leader of the Freedom Party. Someone at some point is going to do their research and rumble him. What was driving you through all of this?

[Julian Hessenthaler]

So at first when I started I thought, okay, this is not going to go really nowhere much. Then it was more like curiosity to a degree. I was all the time just going further to see when the point was, when they would say, okay, look, all fine now, but show some ide. Let's do a background check, meet with our security guy, something.

[Narrator]

But it doesn't happen. And without resistance, Julian finds that the madcap plan he's cooking up, it becomes a reality. And so that's how he ends up in a high stakes sting to entrap the boss. The man who party boy Johann Gudenos answers to the leader of the Freedom Party, Heinz Christian Stracher. Stracher is a radical, but he's also hugely popular. No Austrian politician has as many followers online these days. They call themselves Team Ha. See Heinz Christian. So going after him, it's no small deal. Gudenz has by this point suggested to the oligarch's niece that she buys the country's biggest newspaper to help the party win upcoming elections in return for political favours. Julian's plan is to draw Stracher into this notion too, and expose his willingness to be corrupted. What surprises Julian is just how quickly Stracher says yes to the invitation. It has Julian wondering if he's got this far already, how far might others with much greater resources and fewer scruples have got hostile foreign countries, for example.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

So if I'm sitting here now after a few weeks, where are state actors taken and what does that mean for the country I was born in? So I cannot even explain it fully, but it was just like a feeling of that's just too much. I think that's the best way to put it. It's just too much. I know politics is corrupt. I know everything. I know that, I know that, I believe to know that. But this is too much.

[Narrator]

It's no coincidence that this tale is going to loop back to Jan Marsalek. Corruption isn't just the mood music in this whole series. It's the air that these characters breathe.

[Sam Jones]

It's July 2017 when Julian tries again. He's on Ibiza and he's just got back from that shopping trip. The champagne is on ice.

[Narrator]

He and the Russian oligarch's niece are on the terrace of a rented villa, waiting for their guests to arrive, psyching themselves up. This villa, it's pretty luxurious by any normal standard, but it's on Airbnb, and for that reason, Julian is a little nervous. Billionaires do not use Airbnb. The COVID story he's prepared is that his client wouldn't be seen dead, inviting people like Stracha and Gudenus to her real home on the island where her young family is.

[Sam Jones]

The whole thing is taking place on Ibiza for a reason. It's an open secret in Viennese political circles that every year Straker and a bunch of acolytes head to the island to let loose.

[Narrator]

Julian has brought in professional help for the technical side of things. He's not going to mess up the recording a second time. There will be memory cards. The whole villa is rigged. There's a camera hidden in a phone charging station on a sideboard in the living room. Another in a fake light switch taped to the wall. There are even cameras in the lid of a Starbucks coffee cup and in a small clock positioned on the kitchen counter. What we know about what happened that day, it all comes from Julian and the hours of tape and video from the villa. Stracher arrives with Gudenus, who has brought his wife, Tajana. She's Serbian and another fluent Russian speaker. Introductions are made. Julian explains his role as a fixer and introduces his supposed client, Denise.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

We're just drinking some wine and testing each other. I guess Mr. Stracher was asking, okay, what do you do? Where is she from?

[Narrator]

Dinner is served in the garden. Julian has ordered in trays of high end sushi. He and the oligarch's niece begin to work in their talking points. As the conversation flows, they have a.

[Sam Jones]

List of incriminating requests for Stracher that they plan on floating with him in return for buying Austria's most influential paper.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

The main things we had said, we want you to change the law so water drinking, water resources can be privatized. We told them we want contracts for the upkeep of military installations, we want airport contracts, we want telecommunications, so anything a state actor would have an interest in getting his fingers into.

[Narrator]

It's turning into a long evening and it's getting chilly outside, so they move into the sitting room of the Villa.

[Sam Jones]

In the footage from the secret recording that day, you can see Straker sprawled.

[Narrator]

On the sofa, the oligarch's niece.

[Sam Jones]

Next to him, Gudenus is translating from German to Russian.

[Narrator]

There are empty bottles on the table.

[Sam Jones]

The sound is kind of rough, but if you listen carefully, you can hear.

[Narrator]

The conversation rambling over Austrian politics, the crimes of the Freedom Party's enemies, and.

[Sam Jones]

Their plans to win influence in the media.

[Narrator]

Gudenus and Stracher, they're drinking quite a lot, which probably helps, because at two points, things very nearly come off the rails. The oligarch's niece is getting fed up. This is not what she signed up for. She's doing the whole thing as a favor for Julian, but it's taking a toll. She's an actress, not an actual spy. She hates these people, and her mask is beginning to slip.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

She was really being impolite. He says, okay, if you buy me this newspaper, I'm going to be the next chancellor. And she looks him dead in the eye and tells him, I also want to be a cosmonaut, but you're just an idiot. And I mean.

[Narrator]

You were in the room.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

Yeah, I was in the room.

[Narrator]

What was going through your head?

[Julian Hessenthaler]

So she was talking Russian to Mr. Kudenos. Kudenos was translating. So the point is, Mr. Schraacher obviously didn't understand, but Mr. Kudenos understands perfectly well what she said. He just doesn't translate it.

[Narrator]

Gudenus's wife is also an unexpected complication. At one point, she gazes directly into one of the hidden cameras as if she's seen it. And then she asks this question.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

How you're not sure this is not a trap. And Mr. Schrager went into. He was like, yeah, this is all strange. And then he came up with some strange reasons, because the toenails of the oligarch's niece were supposedly not in the. In the condition what he would expect from an oligarch's niece or whatever. So in any case, he was like, yeah, that's strange. And Munster, Gudenos actually lied to him. So he actually told him, no, no, this is not a trap. We have known each other for a long time.

[Narrator]

Of course, Gudanus hasn't known the niece very long at all. They've barely spent more than an evening in each other's company. But already, Gudenus is so invested in this fiction, he's excited by what this deal with the oligarch's niece could do for the Freedom Party and for him. He's ventured his reputation as the party's point man for Russia on it. And now he's got his boss involved.

[Sam Jones]

As a result, he's the perfect unwitting ally in the deception.

[Narrator]

Julian realizes all the same, he needs to increase the pressure. So he takes Straker aside and confronts him.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

We came here because we understood you're serious about this. Now we need to talk about this because it's clear we're not going to get contracts from you. And I think you're smart enough to understand that. We're not going to invest 150 million just for you to tell us. Yeah, when that happens, we'll see how. What we can get to, but because that's not how things work. So we're going to need an agreement here. The agreement needs to be clear cut.

[Narrator]

Stracher says he gets it, but he's still being evasive. He says he wants to find a legal solution to gloss this relationship.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

That's like me going to rob a bank and telling them, look, give me all your money. But just so we both understand each other, this is not a robbery.

[Narrator]

By now the sitting room is looking less digestifs with a billionaire and more Balearic lads on the lash. People are switching between languages and Julian is worried about whether they're actually going to get incriminating material at all. He doesn't know, of course, just what has been caught by the different cameras around the villa. It's only later, after reviewing hours of tape, that he hears the moment, the bit he needs. And it comes right as Stracher is leaving the villa and he turns around.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

He was already outside the door in the garden. He turns around and calls to Mr. Godellos and tells him, go back and settle it now. Mr. Godellos goes back and there is a. She's alone with the oligarch's niece in the kitchen. And that's also on video. And he says he's trying to whisper, but the camera was quite near so you can hear. And he says, look, he's ready to do whatever you want. Just he cannot say, do you understand? And she tells him, I understand, but does he understand that even for me this is a very risky move? And he says, yes, yes, we're willing to do everything, I promise you.

[Narrator]

This final few seconds of footage is the match that will ignite a political bomb and end up putting me in front of the people who are the key to understanding Jan Marsalek's other life. Three months after the Ibiza operation, something happens which really changes the whole nature of the material that Julian has on tape. The Freedom Party does better than expected in the elections. They get brought into government. Heinz Christian Stracher. He becomes the Vice Chancellor, the second most powerful man in Austria.

[Sam Jones]

Julian has to be very careful who he talks to. And over the span of about a year and a half, he begins to crack.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

This time feeling completely alone in the world, carrying a weight you don't. You cannot even really carry. It's much too heavy for you. And not having nowhere to turn, not having no one to take the load off of you, that's psychologically incredibly straining. Where I was really locking myself in at home, drinking myself to sleep, hating myself for having touched it.

[Sam Jones]

Secrets can have a hugely corrosive power. For some people, the radioactivity is what they enjoy most.

[Narrator]

But for others, it can be unbearable. Julian tries to get on with his life, but he can't. Knowing what he knows. He begins to talk to two newspapers very tentatively about making the video public. He knows that in doing so, he will probably get outed. There are many people in Austrian politics and the media who still believe Julian embarked on this project for commercial gain. But Julian says that's not the case. You never tried to sell the video?

[Julian Hessenthaler]

No, I never tried to sell the video.

[Sam Jones]

Jan Marsalek wasn't directly involved in the.

[Narrator]

Ibiza scandal, but he's all around the edges of it.

[Sam Jones]

Julian remembers one uncomfortable coincidence after that night in Ibiza, but before the video became public. An unexpected encounter on a plane.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

I was flying out of Moscow and all of a sudden Mr. Gudinos pops up and drops in his seat beside me, like, hey, what are you doing here? And I was like, obviously it was not what I expected or wanted at that time.

[Sam Jones]

Since he'd got the evidence he needed, Julian had been trying to distance himself from Straker and Gudenus. So this was the last thing he wanted. But Gudenus wanted to talk about someone he'd just met and had been really impressed by.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

He told me, yeah, I had such a great time, you know, I was on a party on a yacht and I was like, yacht, Moscow? Yeah, I asked him, yacht in Moscow. Like, ah, yeah, there's a guy, Janu, you need to meet him soon. He's Austrian, he's a great guy. You need to meet Jan.

[Sam Jones]

Eventually, Julian decides to go public. He hands over four plus hours of raw footage to the press. And then in May 2019, it happens. The Ibiza video lands and the effect is almost instantaneous. Stracher and Gudenus resign. The whole Austrian Government collapses. Everything is in flux. And this is the moment When I arrived in Vienna. I did reach out to Heinz Christian.

[Narrator]

Stracher about all this.

[Sam Jones]

He told me that the Ibiza video was a setup, in his words, an illegally staged trap. In fact, he believes there was another actor behind Julian and his lawyer friend, an intelligence service. He says the video was edited to do maximum damage to him, pointing out that only five minutes or so of tape was initially released. The rest of the tape, he says, shows him rejecting offers of corruption. He also wonders why the video was released nearly two years after it was made. Of the 17 official investigations and lawsuits against him, 14 have now been dropped or overturned on appeal. As it happens, Stracher hasn't left politics. He's running to be mayor of Vienna as leader of his new political party, Team Harsey. We reached out to Gudenus, too. He didn't respond. He has always denied wrongdoing and refuted allegations of corruption in connection with the Ibiza scandal. The day after Julian's video aired, I took a call from a friendly diplomat. He had seen my coverage of the Ibiza scandal and he offhandedly told me, if you're interested in real Russian influence.

[Narrator]

In Austrian politics, never mind fake oligarchs.

[Sam Jones]

Nieces, then you need to dig into the Austrian Russian Friendship Society.

[Narrator]

I grin broadly as I hear this. Because that has got to be the worst cover name for a front organisation I have ever heard.

[Sam Jones]

He says.

[Narrator]

All the best secrets in Austria in plain sight.

[Sam Jones]

It turns out that there's even a website for the Friendship Society, the which stands for Take a Deep Breath. Everyone is De Reichisch Rosische Freundschaft Gesellschaft.

[Narrator]

It's pretty clear that lots of material has already been taken down, but not everything. There's still a link to a flyer, an invitation, a summit featuring Russia's deputy foreign minister, its ambassador to Vienna and a host of security officials from Moscow. The venue, the Austrian Ministry of Defence. For the second time in the day, I find myself grinning, maybe even actually laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of this. Because the thing is, Russia, even at this stage, is something of a pariah in Europe. In February 2014, it invaded its neighbor, seizing Crimea. It's meddled in the US presidential election. It's been exposed for the mass doping of its athletes at the Olympics. It's systematically hacking and in some cases damaging commercial computer networks. It's just killed an innocent woman in Britain with a highly dangerous nerve agent in. In a botched assassination attempt. Even if the Austrian government hadn't Just collapsed. This friendly meeting would look odd. First thing the next day, I call the Ministry of Defence to ask about this summit, and I'm surprised when I actually get an answer. It's not happening at the Ministry anymore. I get told it's going to be held privately, and then sotto voce, I'm not sure I'm supposed to say where.

[Sam Jones]

A pause.

[Narrator]

Have you got a pen? It's happening at the Grand Hotel, the very same hotel in downtown Vienna where Julian Hessenthaler first tried and failed to get Johan Gudenhus on tape before Ibiza that afternoon. I decide to try and gatecrash this summit.

[Sam Jones]

The Grand Hotel has a busy taxi rank outside, which gives the opportunity to walk past relatively inconspicuously. I try to get a sense of.

[Narrator]

What'S going on inside and whether there.

[Sam Jones]

Are any irritating security arrangements in place.

[Narrator]

It seems there are not. I stride in as confidently as I can. Reception is quiet. There's no obvious sign that anything is happening here today. I ask a porter. He tells me to look upstairs in the conference suite. There's a thrum of people towards the end of the corridor, so I discreetly join them. And I'm surprised when I get ushered into this room and hurried into a seat.

[Sam Jones]

The Russian deputy Foreign Minister and ambassador.

[Narrator]

Are about to arrive and the organisers.

[Sam Jones]

Want everyone sat down. What followed wasn't hugely exciting.

[Narrator]

There were some odd speeches full of.

[Sam Jones]

Platitudes and familiar Russian talking points about their status as a great power, and so on.

[Narrator]

At this stage, I don't really know what I'm here looking for or expecting. I don't recognize the faces of the various civil servants who have turned up, so I decide I'll creep out at the next opportunity. I've seen this event taking place, I've seen what's being said, and to be honest, for now that seems like enough. I'm also on a bit of an adrenaline high, mainly because I'm pretty surprised I haven't yet been rumbled. But then, as I leave, something else catches my eye. In the corridor, now empty, is a registration desk, and on this registration desk a sheet of paper, a register of attendees and invitees. Without stopping to think, I grab it, roll it up and stick it in the inside pocket of my jacket. I don't properly look at it until I'm back at my hotel, sat in front of my laptop. I know this document could be important because I. I think my diplomat friend was hinting earlier that the Friendship Society is a cover for Russian influence and intelligence operations. So I look through the list for leads. None of the names jump out at me until I notice something else. One sponsor has a very familiar name.

[Sam Jones]

Wirecard.

[Rinse Advertiser]

These days I can do anything from my phone book. A vacation, order, a meal from a five star restaurant, buy and trade stocks. But maybe the most amazing thing I can do is make my dirty laundry disappear and then reappear perfectly washed and folded. I have Rinse to thank for that. I just schedule a pickup in the Rinse app [e-mail], and a Rinse valet comes to get my clothes. And before I know it, they're back, crisply folded and ready to wear. They even do dry cleaning, which is returned hanging in a nice rinse garment bag. And with Rinse, my satisfaction is guaranteed. If for any reason I'm not happy, they'll reclean my clothes for free. Best of all, Rinse saves me tons of time each week. That's time I get to do something I love versus something I have to do. So if you want to save loads of time by not doing loads of laundry, remember there's an app for that rinse. Sign up now and get $20 off your first order at rinse.com. that's R I N S E dot com.

[Sam Jones]

I told myself that this sudden appearance of Wirecard, a huge German company my colleagues were investigating for fraud, was probably a coincidence. But it kept niggling at me.

[Narrator]

Paul Murphy, my editor at the ft, had told me that Marsalek, Wirecard's chief operating officer, was was somehow involved in Austrian politics behind the scenes. An impression he'd got from their lunches together in London and Munich. After only a few weeks in Austria, I felt I had found some tiny bits of a puzzle. I knew they must join together to maybe tell us what Marsalek was up to. I just couldn't see how I needed to find someone who could help. That someone turned out to be Stephanie Crisper Steffi.

[Podcast Host]

I never wanted to get into politics. I had no intention to do so.

[Narrator]

Steffi is an MP for Austria's young reformist party, the neus. She's now one of my most valuable contacts in Austria. Steffi remembers hearing about Julian's Ibiza video. As for most of Austria's liberal politicians, it was an electric moment.

[Podcast Host]

I was totally astonished. What was shocking is the brutality in which Strache voiced his intentions to act in a corrupt way.

[Narrator]

After the Ibiza scandal broke, the Austrian parliament voted to create a special investigatory committee with huge powers. Basically the ability to act like a mini court it was called the Ibiza Committee. Almost all of its work was secret, but it was investigating exactly what I was interested in. Thanks to Julian and the Ibiza scandal. It was going to probe Russian influence in Austrian politics. Among other things, the Friendship Society. So surely I thought it would shed further light on Marsalek's role there.

[Sam Jones]

Steffi.

[Narrator]

She was a member of this committee, the most outspoken. And that's why I knew I had to try and get to know her. The first time I met with Steffi in person was not long after the Ibiza scandal broke. We were in her office, a huge grand room, like all these other Viennese offices, but the floor space was filled with desks and files. We were talking about corruption in Austrian politics. But at the end of the conversation.

[Sam Jones]

I asked if she had ever heard.

[Narrator]

Of anyone called Jan Marsalek. Steffi and I have slightly different memories of how that conversation went.

[Sam Jones]

And then at the end of the.

[Narrator]

Meeting, I asked, oh, and do you know anything about this guy, Jan Marshalek? But that was. And I said, no, no, you didn't. You said, maybe.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, but I didn't say anything.

[Narrator]

You looked in a funny way.

[Podcast Host]

Oh yeah, my poker face.

[Narrator]

Yeah. And said, I'll talk about. I will ask someone.

[Sam Jones]

Exactly.

[Narrator]

Steffi is right. She didn't say anything. But what was totally clear to me was that yes, she did know this name. And for whatever reason, she couldn't talk about it. Next time I was in Vienna, Steffi got in touch. She said she'd like to tell me something. She suggested a venue. It's a boat on the Danube. Well, almost. It's a moored floating pavilion, really. And it's on the Danube Canal. But anyway, it was mid afternoon and it was cold.

[Sam Jones]

And when I get there, Steffi suggests we sit outside.

[Narrator]

We're the only ones. Steffi says that yes, she has heard of Jan Marsalek. Specifically, she's heard about him through a friend. She can't really tell me much more, but this friend, she says, believes Marsalek is very dangerous.

[Podcast Host]

And I'm asked not to talk to anybody because he, like others, just tell me things because they're afraid. So I start to do nothing. I mean, yes, I Google myself, Marsalek, etc. But I don't ask journalists like you what they think about this guy. I really do nothing.

[Narrator]

What he said to you, he was worried about his personal safety?

[Podcast Host]

Yes, exactly.

[Narrator]

I tell her what I know, that Wirecard is a huge fraud, that Marsalek is at the center of it and that we at the FT know he uses aggressive surveillance and private investigators to go after people. Steffi says she'll go back to her source and relay that we're looking into Marsalek. But she doesn't tell me much more. The impression I get is that whoever this person is, he's not exactly the anxious type of and so whatever he's concerned about is genuine. Steffi later asked this man if he'd be willing to meet me and he was.

[Podcast Host]

I thought, I hope that he will talk to you and you will be able to investigate on it. And things come up and there are consequences and perhaps misdeeds and misbehavior is stopped.

[Narrator]

Several weeks go by and Steffi gets in touch again. It's late December and I'm back in Vienna for a quick visit to tie up some loose ends before heading back to Zurich. Vienna is feeling particularly festive and in the city parks foresters have come down from the hills with huge truckloads of fir trees to sell to the Viennese. Steffi tells me this source of hers is in town now. That's rare, she says. Normally he's not even in Europe, but time is limited. He can meet in the evening. I curse because my flight home is at 7, but I decide I can catch the night train back instead. So I go back to Steffi and the meeting is on. We agree. A venue, Cafe Pruckel. Pruckel is one of the great Viennese coffee houses. Its interior is unexpected. It's a beautiful, entirely original 1950s scheme. Polished wood, light green upholstery worn and a bit tatty, and some soft, dusty pink on the walls. This time in the evening is bright and busy. There's a pianist, waiters hurry back and forth and there's a typical Viennese crowd. Young Christmas revelers, stately Dharma with tisanes and furs and academic looking men. Faces buried in huge newspapers. That evening I grab a discreet table in the corner of the room with a view to the door and my back to the wall. I don't know who I'm looking for and in keeping with the generally cinematic feel of it all, I turn up to Prickel with a copy of the FT tucked in under my arm. So much it turned out hinged on this moment and what it would deliver.

[Sam Jones]

Treasure.

[Narrator]

A breakthrough lead. As far as I was aware, I only had one shot with this source and we only had 15 minutes. I had to find out what he knew, but I also needed to get a sense of whether he was credible and most important of all, I had to try to convey to him that I was credible too. I needed him to trust me enough that I could keep a connection with him. And then I spot a man coming through the door of the cafe, looking around. He's in his mid-50s. He's solidly built, ever so slightly imposing, with a broad, open face and thick stubble. He walks towards me, spotting the copy of the paper in front of me. I'm Killian, he says. We don't have much time, and in my haste all I've brought with me to scribble on is the tiny four sheet pad for telephone messages from my hotel room. Can you tell me who you are? I ask. Can you tell me what you know about Jan Marsalek? He's met Jan Marsalek a handful of times. He's been to his home, he's had dinner with him, he was employed by him, and he's convinced that Marsalek is working closely with Russian intelligence.

[Sam Jones]

How does Cillian know that? Because Jan basically did everything but tell him so.

[Narrator]

Next time on Hot Money.

[Julian Hessenthaler]

And then very fast actually, he started then talking about his experience in Syria, facilitated by the Boys just after the recapture of the city of Palmyra from isis.

[Narrator]

When he said, with the boys, what did you think?

[Julian Hessenthaler]

He basically said with the Russians.

[Narrator]

Hot Money is a production of the.

[Sam Jones]

Financial Times and Pushkin Industries. It was written and reported by me, Sam Jones. The senior producer and co writer is Peggy Sutton. Our producer is Izzy Carter. Our researcher is Maureen Saint. Our show is edited by Karen Shakurji, fact checking by Kira Levine, sound design and mastering by Jake Gorski and Marcelo d', Oliveira with additional sound design by Izzy Carter. Original music from Matthias Bossi and John Evans of Stellwagen Symphonette. Our show art is by Sean Carney. Our executive producers are Cheryl Brumley, Amy Gaines McQuaid, and Matthew Garaghan. Additional editing by Paul Murphy. Special thanks to rula Khalaf, Dan McCrum, Laura Clark, Alistair Mackey, Manuele Zaragoza, Nigel Hansen, Vicki Merrick, Eric Sandler, Morgan Ratner, Jake Flanagan, Jacob Goldstein, Sarah Nix, and Greta Cohn. I'm Sam Jones. Subscribe to Pushkin plus to listen to Hot Agent of Chaos ad free as a Pushkin subscriber. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks and binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin plus on the Hot Money show page, on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin FM. Plus.

[Rinse Advertiser]

These days I can do anything from my phone book a vacation, order a meal from a five star restaurant buy and trade stocks. But maybe the most amazing thing I can do is make my dirty laundry disappear and then reappear perfectly washed and folded. I have rinse to thank for that. I just schedule a pickup in the Rinse app [e-mail] a Rinse Valet comes to get my clothes and before I know it they're back crisply folded and ready to wear. They even do dry cleaning which is returned hanging in a nice rinse garment bag. And with rinse my satisfaction is guaranteed. If for any reason I'm not happy, they'll reclean my clothes for free. Best of all, Rinse saves me tons of time each week and that's time I get to do something I love versus something I have to do. So if you want to save loads of time by not doing loads of laundry, remember there's an app for that rinse. Sign up now and get $20 off your first [e-mail] that's R I N S E.com this is an iHeart podcast.