On 17 May 2019, Der Spiegel and the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that in 2017, Strache and Freedom Party member Johann Gudenus had been offered electoral support by a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch (Igor Makarov). The source of the allegations was a video secretly recorded at a rented villa on Ibiza in July 2017, which apparently shows Strache agreeing to offer the woman assistance in acquiring business contracts in Austria in exchange for rendering support in the upcoming 2017 Austrian legislative election (snap election).[1] Five people took part in the videotaped meeting, according to the German news outlets, which had examined the tapes but had not released the full recordings.