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Special Forces
These Bundestag members are supposed to help fight money laundering
Since 1999, the Reichstag has been the seat of the German Bundestag – and a symbol of democracy
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In the future, a secret committee in the Bundestag will check that the FIU money laundering unit is working properly. In view of the “multiplicity of scandals,” this is “absolutely necessary,” says the opposition.
A special unit of the Customs Criminal Investigation Office is supposed to investigate money laundering, but this has only worked moderately well in the past – Germany is considered a money laundering paradise. On Thursday, the Bundestag wants to set up a parliamentary committee to control this special unit, the so-called Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The members of the committee, which meets in secret, are supposed to have access to information received from the financial supervisory authority.
Eleven MPs will be represented on the committee and will control the authority, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Finance. According to information from star Mechthilde Wittmann, Michael Meister and Matthias Hauer for the Union, Markus Herbrand and Manuel Höferlin for the FDP and Sabine Grützmacher and Marcel Emmerich for the Greens should be represented on the committee. According to a report by “Politico,” Sonja Eichwede, Carlos Kasper and Jens Zimmermann should get a seat for the SPD. A place is also reserved for the AfD.
The request from the SPD, Greens and FDP to set up such a “committee in accordance with Section 28a of the Money Laundering Act” is on the Bundestag agenda for Thursday, as is the election of the members of the committee based on election proposals from the parliamentary groups. It is unclear whether the AfD candidate will be elected to the committee. The experience with the Parliamentary Control Committee of the Bundestag, which controls the secret services, suggests otherwise: Since 2022, the majority of the Bundestag has refused a candidate from the right-wing extremist party a place in the committee.
Money laundering: FIU should focus on serious cases
The FIU receives information, for example from banks, about possible money laundering. The customs office should examine these and, if necessary, forward them to the appropriate authorities for criminal prosecution. However, the authority has repeatedly made negative headlines in the past, for example because masses of reports were left unprocessed. International auditors from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have also confirmed that Germany has a money laundering problem in the past.
In November, the Bundestag passed a law establishing a “risk-based approach” to the work of the FIU. The authority can use technical means to distinguish important reports from unimportant ones. This should allow the authority to concentrate on processing serious cases.
CDU: “Questions must be fully answered”
“The more effectively the FIU works, the greater the contribution to criminal prosecution,” said Green Party politician Sabine Grützmacher star, “and the more significant the success in confiscating the assets obtained through organized crime”. Her goal in the committee is to ensure “that investigations are carried out in a non-discriminatory but still effective manner”.
The establishment of the committee is “absolutely necessary,” said CDU politician Matthias Hauer star – “Given the large number of scandals by the FIU and their importance in our system for preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.” In the past, the FIU and the federal government had developed a “worrying castle mentality”. “Our expectation of the Bundestag’s FIU committee is that this wagon-fortress mentality will come to an end.” The MPs must “finally be given detailed information about how the FIU works and MPs’ questions must be answered in full,” demanded the chairman of the Union parliamentary group in the Finance Committee.