Austrian Says Nazis Voided Extradition Treaty Man Accused Of Cheating Victims In His Homeland Out Of $720,000

An Austrian ex-con, jailed here, is fighting extradition to his homeland to face fraud charges filed when he stuck his best man for the expenses of his Seattle wedding.

Michael Spitzauer, arrested by U.S. marshals in January at the request of Austrian authorities, is contesting the U.S.-Austrian extradition treaty of 1930, saying it was rendered defunct by the 1938 German takeover of Austria before World War II.

Those familiar with the case say it is the first time the treaty’s existence has been challenged in court.

Spitzauer came to the United States in April 1995, shortly after his release from an Austrian prison. Within three months, he was married to a Seattle woman, with whom he now has two young sons.

A warrant for his arrest alleges he defrauded Austrian victims of about $720,000 in unrecovered loans and credit-card bills in travels from Vienna to Seattle to Lagos, Nigeria.

Spitzauer, 39, has lived in the Seattle area since 1995, when he met Melissa Larson while staying at the downtown Stouffer Madison Hotel. Larson, then a cocktail waitress, called it “love at first sight.”

They were married by a judge on July 18, 1995 - just before the expiration of Spitzauer’s 90-day visa.

Melissa Spitzauer said she’s anxious for her husband to return home. Michael Jr., 18 months old, constantly asks for his father, and 7-month-old Zachary has seen him only in court, she said.

“He’s got two infants that he never sees,” she said. “I really need him.

Two months after they were married, the couple had a formal wedding ceremony at St. James Cathedral that was attended by family and friends, some of them from Austria.

Expenses for the wedding and a honeymoon in Hawaii are among the issues raised in the Austrian warrant, which alleges that Spitzauer fraudulently used a credit card belonging to his best man, an Austrian, to cover more than $30,000 of those costs.

The warrant says Spitzauer portrayed himself to several victims as a successful international businessman.

Among other allegations in court documents:

Two Austrian brothers claim they lent Spitzauer $424,000 for a Nigerian oil deal that never materialized.

His best man, Adolf Tscheitschonig, claims he lost about $140,000 in loans and credit-card expenses prosecutors attribute to Spitzauer. In one instance, Spitzauer allegedly persuaded Tscheitschonig to wire $37,000 from Austria - money he said he needed because a business partner’s check had bounced.

Austrian officials contend these alleged frauds were perpetrated to reimburse victims of an earlier fraud scheme for which he served four years of a six-year sentence before he was released on parole in 1995.