Steirergeld (2022)

Sascha Bergmann of the Graz State Criminal Police Office and his colleague Anni Sulmtaler investigate a suspicious death in Mursbruck. Rudolf “Rudi” Stiegler, director of the private bank on the main square, was attacked in his home and subsequently died of a heart attack. There are no visible injuries on the victim, and the safe in Stiegler’s house was empty, so Bergmann suspects a robbery resulting in death. Stiegler was a generous benefactor to the town and its local ice hockey team. As a bank director, he attracted more and more savers by offering high interest rates. However, behind it all was a Ponzi scheme that had just collapsed. The losses are said to total around 500 million euros. Bergmann and Sulmtaler investigate Stiegler’s death alongside the financial scandal, after Bergmann suspects a connection between the two cases. Sulmtaler is particularly interested in bank customers who lost more money than was covered by deposit insurance. They receive assistance from Markus Tauber, a financial auditor from the National Bank, who begins a romance with Sulmtaler. Bergmann’s superior, Nicole Sturm, discovers that Tauber had gone to great lengths to get assigned to the audit. Rudolf Stiegler was president of the ice hockey club. Gerhard Pircheger, coach Walter Aflenzer and roofer Erich Möttl serve on the club’s board and the bank’s supervisory board. After returning from Canada, Willi Murer plays for the club with his girlfriend Nancy. Karin Weber had worked with Rudolf Stiegler for twenty years. Erich Möttl is furious that she did not warn him in time about the impending bank collapse, and he therefore lost a lot of money. Möttl had run various errands and done odd jobs for Stiegler. Gerhard Pircheger, on the other hand, had been warned in time. On Zeit im Bild, Nadja Bernhard reports on the resignation of regional economics councillor Stefan Keglevic over accepting gifts. Mayor Elisabeth Korn had an affair with Rudi, who was married to Lore Stiegler, and Lore knew about it. She blames her husband for the death of their daughter, because he had given her a sports car in which she crashed. The autopsy shows that Rudi could have been saved if the emergency doctor had been called sooner. While Sulmtaler is in Tauber’s room but then leaves because of her colleague’s suspicions, Walter Aflenzer is shot dead. Sulmtaler suspects a blackmail attempt that went wrong. Aflenzer’s mobile phone data lead to Murer’s and Stiegler’s houses. Willi Murer confesses that he and Walter Aflenzer carried out the attack on Rudolf Stiegler together. He only called the ambulance from a phone booth afterward. However, he insists he had nothing to do with Aflenzer’s murder. Lore Stiegler, who found her husband after the attack, eventually admits to the police that she called for an ambulance only after her husband had died, because when she was about to make the call, the picture of their daughter on her phone would have reminded her again of his guilt. Aflenzer had been blackmailing her with this knowledge. According to Lore, however, the shot that killed Aflenzer went off accidentally.