Former Olympic medalist jailed over kidnap plot
An Austrian court sentenced former Olympic figure skating gold medalist Wolfgang Schwarz to eight years in prison today for plotting to kidnap the teenage daughter of a prominent Romanian businessman and hold her for up to €3m in ransom.
Schwarz, 59, made a surprise confession to the charges earlier today, and a prosecutor said Schwarz was motivated by “greed and selfishness” last October in plotting the abduction and hiring someone to commit the crime, which was never carried out.
The 1968 Olympic champion had faced up to 20 years in prison.
“OK, I admit it was my idea to kidnap the woman. I cannot explain it,” the Austria Press Agency quoted Schwarz as telling the court during questioning.
“The motive for the whole thing was of course greed and selfishness. Anyone could use two to three million euros,” APA quoted state’s attorney Christian Temsch as saying.
Schwarz reportedly sold a home on the outskirts of Vienna to a Romanian law firm, which in turn rented it to the Romanian businessman, Andrei Serban. Serban’s 18-year-old daughter, Andreea, was the last person to live in the house.
“Very good. He he got what he deserved,” Serban, now mayor of the northeastern Romanian city of Slanic-Moldova, said when informed of the verdict.
In December, Schwarz was acquitted of separate charges that he allegedly brought young Lithuanian girls to Austria to work as prostitutes.
He was convicted on similar trafficking charges in 2002, when he admitted bringing in five women from Russia and Lithuania to work as prostitutes, although he insisted he had done it only to help the women.
At that time, he was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in jail, but the sentence was postponed because he was suffering from the side effects of treatment for skin cancer.
