Exclusive
As of: November 16, 2021 6:53 p.m.
Evaluations of emails, documents and SMS messages by NDR, WDR and SZ show how two young Swiss entrepreneurs managed to sell expensive corona masks to German ministries with the help of CSU contacts.
On March 3, 2020, in the evening at 8:14 p.m., Andrea Tandler sent an offer to the Ministry of Health in North Rhine-Westphalia: One million FFP2 masks for 9.9 million euros. Tandler worked with her PR agency for the Swiss trading company Emix, which previously imported cosmetics, perfume and jewelry from China, but quickly switched to protective equipment when the pandemic broke out.
Five days before the Emix offer, the NRW Ministry had already bought a batch of masks from the manufacturer 3M, but not at a price of 9.90 euros, but for 1.15 euros each. But masks were suddenly in short supply in Corona March 2020, the demand from the clinics was huge and NRW responded to the expensive offer. The next day at 1:58 p.m., Ms. Tandler sent another email. “Today we need the 50% deposit confirmation.” NRW also responded to this request and transferred almost five million euros to Switzerland within hours.
Suddenly masks from Hong Kong
According to the contract, Emix was supposed to deliver high-quality masks from 3M to North Rhine-Westphalia. But a week later there was no more talk of it. “Since you placed your order, Emix Trading has frozen three stocks of 3M worldwide”, Andrea Tandler emails the Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia, but “we have worked out a solution for you”. Instead of masks from 3M, Emix now offered masks from Hong Kong at the same price, of course. NRW also accepted that and wrote back: “We are assuming that the goods are free of defects and not counterfeits.”
The offer that Emix sent to the Bavarian Ministry of Health on March 3rd was almost identical in words: one million FFP2 masks, but at a price of 8.90 euros per mask, so a little cheaper. And Jens Spahn’s Federal Ministry of Health also bought masks on a large scale from Emix.
Hundreds of millions went to Switzerland
In total, Germany has bought protective clothing worth almost 700 million euros from the young Swiss entrepreneurs, who have made a profit of an estimated more than 100 million, perhaps even up to 200 million euros. Andrea Tandler, daughter of the former CSU general secretary Gerold Tandler, is said to have received a commission between 34 and 51 million euros for her intermediary services together with her partner.
Doubts about the “market price”
Andrea Tandler herself has not yet answered questions about the case. An investigation by the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the purchase of the masks by the Bavarian Ministry of Health has since been discontinued. Emix explains that the masks “always stayed within the current market price”. Other retailers doubt this: For example, MyDental GmbH from Iserlohn imported masks from Hong Kong in March 2020.
According to the managing director Klaus Köhler, the purchase prices are said to have been 1.70 euros per mask, plus eleven cents import duty and 33 cents air freight. “We sold the masks for 3.55 euros,” says Köhler. When he hears that North Rhine-Westphalia paid 9.90 euros per mask at the time, he thinks it is “usury”.
The deals with German ministries came about through Monika Hohlmeier, CSU member of the European Union and daughter of the long-time Bavarian Prime Minister Franz-Josef Strauss. The daughters Hohlmeier and Tandler are friends. At the end of February 2020, Hohlmeier received the first SMS message on this matter from Tandler. “Hi Moni”, she begins, “a friend of mine from Switzerland has a large inventory of respiratory masks”. He is also negotiating with Amazon, “but would prefer to sell to the public sector.”
“Then go to Austria tomorrow”
Hohlmeier contacts the Bavarian Minister of Health Melanie Huml (CSU) and sends the offer of one million masks. “Urgent registration of interests is necessary because of the many inquiries,” writes Hohlmeier. The CSU politician also wrote to Jens Spahn: “If you are interested, please let me know at short notice. If there is no need then go to Austria tomorrow.”
All respond to the urgent, albeit expensive, offer. Today Monika Hohlmeier announced that she neither knew that the alleged “friend” was Emix, nor that 50 percent advance payment was necessary. It was the job of the responsible ministries to “examine offers, make decisions and conclude contracts”. Incidentally, she herself did not earn anything from the business.
The details of the transactions can be found in emails between Emix and the NRW Ministry of Health, which the NRW state parliament member Stefan Kämmerling (SPD) received with the help of the Freedom of Information Act and published the portal fragdenstaat.de. NDR, WDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ) evaluated the e-mails together with SMS messages from Monika Hohlmeier and other internal documents from ministries.
Emix does not keep promises
It becomes clear how dissatisfied the ministry was soon with Emix. First the guaranteed 3M masks were exchanged for masks from Hong Kong, then the deliveries were repeatedly postponed. The Emix managing directors praised themselves in their e-mails to the ministry: “We know all the markets, producers and logistics providers who are active in this market. We are better positioned than any other company in this crisis situation and give 24/7 our very best “, wrote Emix owner Steffen Luca on March 18th and ended with the promise:” We are currently working with passion exclusively for you “, there is” no better partner than Emix. “
And his partner Jascha Rudolphi sat down at the computer that same night and emailed: “It is 3 o’clock in the morning and we are still working for you”. But at some point even the ministerial officials no longer want to be put off. Two weeks later the ministry wrote: “If I have not received any feedback by tomorrow, I will initiate the partial reversal of the contract.” This is how it comes in the end: NRW only pays for the 527,200 FFP2 masks delivered up to then.
A list by the NRW Ministry shows that the largest federal state has purchased a total of 68 million FFP2 masks from dozens of suppliers. The average price was 4.34 euros. But the deal with Emix, which came about with the help of the CSU connection, remained the most expensive.