Scholz under pressure: raid in the Federal Ministry of Finance

by time news

The public prosecutor’s office and the police launched a raid on the federal finance and justice ministries on Thursday. The background to this is an investigation into the suspicion of fraudulent punishment in the office against those responsible for the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for combating money laundering, which is located at customs. Politicians from the CDU and the opposition demanded comprehensive clarification and attacked Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD).

The FIU, which was previously assigned to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), has been a customs department since 2017, which in turn reports to the Federal Ministry of Finance. The unit acts as a central office for combating money laundering. It receives suspicious activity reports on this topic from banks and brokers as well as certain traders such as jewelers, checks them and, if necessary, forwards them to the law enforcement authorities.

The public prosecutor’s office in Osnabrück has been investigating the suspicion of fraudulent activity in the FIU for a long time. According to their information, documents were secured during searches in the Federal Customs Administration, which revealed information about “extensive communication” between the FIU and the two federal ministries.

Number of suspicious transaction reports dropped to a fraction

“The aim of today’s searches is to further clarify the suspected criminal offense and, in particular, individual responsibilities,” said the authority. The investigations ran “in all directions”.

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the proceedings are concerned with the suspicion that the FIU did not forward money laundering reports filed by banks “in the millions” to the police and the judiciary. According to the information, the investigators also want to investigate whether “the management and those responsible for the ministries” may have been involved in the FIU’s decisions.

At the same time, their investigations also deal with the question “why the number of suspicious transaction reports has fallen to a fraction since the FIU took over the money laundering control”. The evaluation of the documents will take several weeks.

“Of course, the Federal Ministry of Finance fully supports the authorities,” said the department. The underlying suspicion is “expressly not directed against employees” of the ministry.

A spokeswoman for Christine Lambrecht’s Ministry of Justice (SPD) also said that her house was cooperating “to the fullest extent” with the investigators. She also pointed out that the suspicions were not directed against employees of the ministry.

“The politically responsible in the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Justice must explain as quickly as possible what which level in both ministries knew,” demanded the Union budget expert Eckhardt Rehberg (CDU). “The political responsibility for the proceedings that have now become public due to the public prosecutor’s investigations are borne by Mr Scholz and Mrs Lambrecht,” he said, according to AFP.

Fabio De Masi: Germany threatens to fail the OECD’s money laundering check.

Opposition representatives see Scholz as being primarily responsible. “The chaos at the FIU has existed since the Ministry of Finance took over responsibility,” said the Green finance politician Lisa Paus and the Green domestic politician Irene Mihalic. “Olaf Scholz saw the FIU in front of the wall.”

Left parliamentary group deputy Fabio De Masi said: Fabio De Masi: “I have been calling on Finance Minister Olaf Scholz since 2018 to end the chaos at the FIU. This is a security risk for Germany. We need a financial police with criminal expertise! The FIU is also responsible for preventing punishment at Wirecard. That is the absolute maximum penalty for Scholz. Germany threatens to fail the OECD’s money laundering check. If you want to lead Germany, you have to get customs on the line! Germany is gangster’s paradise. “

FDP financial expert Florian Toncar told the AFP news agency that “the many long-known problems at the FIU” have now “reached a whole new level”. Olaf Scholz is responsible for this.

There is also a large amount of money laundering in company law. Suspected criminals from Berlin wanted to increase the capital of a company from 300 to 150,000 euros. “Then 149,700 euros were paid in cash into a business account that was kept at the Wirecard Bank,” said the Berlin public prosecutor Susann Wettley on Thursday. She complained that, due to a change in the Money Laundering Act, it has no longer been possible to report suspicious activity by notaries since August.

That is why Justice Senator Dirk Behrendt (Greens) announced an initiative in the Federal Council that would advocate the reintroduction and expansion of statutory control options. (Sort code, with AFP)

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