The complaint was submitted to the Vienna public prosecutor’s office by lawyer Volkert Sackmann on behalf of “full members of the ÖOC”, i.e. sports associations with seats in the ÖOC general meeting. They see themselves as “damaged” by Mennel and the Presidium. At the center of the case is the crowdfunding platform “I believe in you,” which was founded more than eight years ago. The platform’s balance sheet losses are said to have been covered with ÖOC assets.
The ÖOC members are said to have suffered damages of 416,000 euros. The committee reported on the “criminal acts of Dr. Mennel contributed by agreeing to this procedure, even though the members of the presidium knew that the general meeting body was responsible for such a decision.” Mennel told the ORF on Thursday through his lawyer that “he does not know the facts of the case and denies all allegations back”.
Missing information for ÖOC members
According to Sackmann, the most serious of these is that Mennel acted alone and did not inform the ÖOC members about the assumption of the losses. This would emerge from meeting minutes. “Why am I hiding something? If it’s such a great project, then I’ll get my members involved,” said Sackmann. It “cannot be the main task of the ÖOC to replenish ailing companies with capital. “I don’t think the members would agree to that,” the lawyer continued.
In total, “I believe in you” is said to have accumulated 624,000 euros in debt. “Money is disappearing and no one knows why,” said Sackmann. He basically asks himself “how you can actually make a loss of 600,000 euros with a homepage when it receives twelve percent of the money collected. The argument was based on personnel costs – all well and good. That just doesn’t help the ÖOC athletes.” In the coming week, his clients would be able to see the books. This was guaranteed by the ÖOC.
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ÖOC leaders reported for infidelity
Meanwhile, the ÖOC denounced the anonymity of the ad operators, who submitted “an unfounded statement of the facts” to the public prosecutor’s office. “There are a few who want to do the greatest possible damage to the sport and our Olympic family. They want to assert their own power interests by all means and undermine democratic decisions.”
Annual general meeting becomes a marginal topic
Appeals for cohesion and positive cooperation on July 3rd would not have lasted long. At that time and in the weeks before, the ÖOC was last in the headlines. The proposed election proposal for a new ÖOC presidium was rejected by the majority of members; a new election proposal was only published on Wednesday. This should come up for a vote next Friday. Stoss and Max-Theurer (equestrian sports) as well as Markus Prock (tobogganing) and Sonja Spender (athletics) are running for the presidency again.
The general meeting is now taking a back seat due to the new development. The ÖOC broadcast addresses the temporal context. “It is no coincidence that this dirtbag campaign was launched immediately after the election proposal was announced by the election committee. Here, democratic processes are to be undermined by force,” Stoss and Co. suspect. But they will not bow to this “character assassination campaign”.
New election of the ÖOC Presidium questioned
ÖOC member Hermann Krist cannot imagine that there will actually be an election next Friday. “Certainly not,” said the ASKÖ president to the daily newspaper “Standard”. “I can’t imagine it with the best will in the world. And I certainly can’t imagine that Stoss will get the required two-thirds majority.” In any case, Krist herself won’t vote for it. “With all the open questions, I would have to be lucky if I used my vote to relieve the old board of directors and then ensure that the president receives another term in office. If I did that, I could be accused of negligence,” Krist said.
According to the ÖOC, the anonymous writing of a statement of facts and its distribution to selected media – here ORF and “Standard” – is, according to the ÖOC, a particularly bad form of “media pillory”, which has long been known in politics and business in Austria and has now unfortunately also reached sport . “The allegations made are, as can easily be clarified, without any basis.” Of course, the statement of facts is not yet available to the ÖOC.
