Waldviertler employee accused of diverting more than €800,000

A former commercial employee of Waldviertler Werkstätten is suspected of diverting more than €800,000 from the shoe and bag maker, ORF reported on Friday. The man has been arrested and is in pretrial detention.

The company, based in Schrems in the Gmünd district, says the former employee allegedly transferred money from cancelled online orders to his own accounts. The payments had been refunded to the company by a payment service provider and were recorded as customer refunds. He is also suspected of inventing fictitious customer names.

Smaller amounts were allegedly diverted from at least the first half of 2025, in a way that was “hidden and hard to detect,” sales manager Hans Schwar told noe.ORF.at, confirming a report by Kurier. The company filed a complaint on 15 September after discovering irregularities. It spent weeks investigating and initially suspected a hacker attack, Schwar said.

The employee was dismissed on 5 October after the suspected fraud came to light. He has not admitted wrongdoing to the company, Schwar said. The total loss is not yet finalised, but exceeds €800,000 and represents a single-digit percentage of the company’s annual turnover.

The suspected fraud caused liquidity problems for the business. It took on external financing and negotiated longer payment periods with suppliers. The company hopes to recover at least some of the money, Schwar said.