Status: 10.09.2021 4:16 p.m.
The investigators “could have put their questions in writing” – for this reaction to searches in his ministry, SPD chancellor candidate Scholz is sharply attacked. Not only the Union criticizes Scholz’s understanding of the rule of law.
Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz is criticized for his statements about the search of his ministry in connection with money laundering investigations. “If your own ministry is searched to tell the public prosecutor what it would have done better, you only know from populist states,” said CDU leader Armin Laschet.
Such behavior should “not be adopted as a stylistic feature,” said the Union candidate for chancellor. “You should avoid anything that gives the impression that we don’t have an independent judiciary.”
FIU reports to the Ministry of Finance
Yesterday, the Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office searched the finance ministry headed by Scholz, as did the justice ministry. The investigations are directed against the special unit for combating money laundering, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), located at customs and thus at the Ministry of Finance.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, they have been investigated since 2020 because suspicious transaction reports produced by banks have not been forwarded to the police and the judiciary. According to the Ministry of Finance, the investigations are directed against unknown employees of the FIU based in Cologne.
Scholz, who is the SPD’s candidate for chancellor, was initially irritated by the searches and said: If the investigators had questions for the finance department, they “could have asked them in writing”.
CSU: “Pathetic white washing attempts”
Criticism of Scholz’s statement came not only from Chancellor candidate Laschet but also from a number of other Union politicians. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said the case was “about obstruction of punishment in the office against organized money laundering”. And the “only reaction I have heard from someone who wants to become Chancellor in this country is that he is disgruntled”.
The CDU budget politician Eckhardt Rehberg said that Scholz was trying to downplay the raid, as if it could be done away with with a letter. This testifies to a “strange understanding of the rule of law”. The CSU finance politician Hans Michelbach spoke of “pathetic whitewash attempts” by the finance minister.
Greens: “victim attitude out of place”
But criticism also came from the Greens. Its financial expert Sven Giegold told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that money laundering and tax fraud caused billions in damage to the common good, “but Olaf Scholz fails in the fight against financial crime”. In particular, “every victim attitude of Olaf Scholz after the search by the public prosecutor is out of place”.
Scholz: Working closely with investigators
On the sidelines of a meeting of EU finance ministers in Kranj, Slovenia, Scholz himself assured that his ministry would work closely with the investigative authorities in the case, “as it should be”.
He also highlighted the efforts made in the fight against money laundering over the past few years. All the prerequisites for “that we have very good supervision” have been created. In doing so, against much resistance, he had succeeded in asserting that the money laundering special unit FIU had received additional competencies. In addition, this has been massively increased in terms of personnel.