Bavaria
Mask affair: tax proceedings against Tandler started
Andrea Tandler and her partner N. were arrested in January on the basis of arrest warrants from the Munich District Court and have been in custody ever since. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Andrea Tandler collected millions of euros for mask businesses at the beginning of the corona pandemic – which is not punishable per se. She and her partner now have to go to court because of several tax allegations.
More than three and a half years after the start of the corona pandemic, a trial against two key figures took place on Wednesday Mask affair started in Bavaria. Andrea Tandler, daughter of the former CSU general secretary Gerold Tandler, and her partner have to answer to the Munich I regional court because of tax allegations.
Tandler is accused of tax evasion in three cases as well as subsidy fraud, the defendant N. of aiding and abetting tax evasion and tax evasion as an accomplice. The Commercial Criminal Chamber has so far planned eight main hearings until November 17th.
The starting point were commission payments that Tandler, her business partner and partner, and a third defendant are said to have received at the beginning of the corona pandemic in 2020 – against which there is at least no legal objection. The entrepreneur had brokered supply contracts for personal protective equipment, in particular masks, between a Swiss company and various federal and state authorities.
Charge: evaded 23.5 million euros in taxes
In total, Tandler is said to have evaded taxes totaling 23.5 million euros, as the Munich I public prosecutor’s office announced at the end of May. Specifically, according to the indictment, it concerns unpaid income taxes of 8.7 million euros, jointly evaded gift taxes of 6.6 million euros and trade tax evasion of 8.2 million euros. If there is a conviction in the end, Tandler and her partner could face long prison sentences. According to the court, the proceedings against the third accused were separated. The presumption of innocence continues to apply to all three accused.
Tandler and her partner N. were arrested in January on the basis of arrest warrants from the Munich district court and have been in custody ever since. After the Munich I Regional Court, the Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG) also rejected detention complaints from the two accused as unfounded.
Shortly after the allegations became known, a spokesman for Tandler said that the lawyers expected that after the initial proceedings were discontinued, “all other allegations would also prove to be groundless.” Tandler and her co-partner “rejected all allegations made in public.” Since then, the lawyers have not responded to any inquiries.