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Status: 04/05/2022 1:24 p.m
Tax investigators have searched properties nationwide. One reason for the raid: Deals by a mailbox company with an Erfurt property. The company involved is also mentioned in the Panama Papers.
The mailbox system at the address in the north of Erfurt does not exactly inspire confidence. Letter slots are lined up on an old, shabby fence. One has a strange company name on it with an exotic address. Barden Asset Management Limited, having its registered office in the Akara Building at 24 Castro Street, Wickhams Cay in Tortola, an island which is part of the British Virgin Islands.
If you enter the name of this company in an Internet search, you will find one of the world’s biggest tax scandals, the Panama Papers data leak, with just a few clicks. Because it can be found in the databases of the so-called offshore leaks Name of the company.
Property of the VEB coal trade
However, Barden Asset Management not only has a mailbox at this address in Erfurt, it has also been active in Thuringia since 2006. MDR Thuringia There is a bundle of internal business files showing that the company may be involved in a questionable real estate deal, which also appears to be a reason for the federal tax raids that have been going on since Tuesday morning.
The traces of this business lead back to the times of German unity and the break-up of GDR companies. Because the area of more than 112,000 square meters was one of the largest storage areas of VEB Kohlenhandel in what was then the district of Erfurt. After reunification, parts of this GDR combine were sold to Energiereisen Rheinbraun AG, which later became RWE – including the property in Erfurt.
Rheinbraun AG sells property to mailbox company
Over the years, the area became more and more fallow. Some attempts were made to dispose of contaminated sites from the ground. There are only a few buildings left on the site. Otherwise the property is completely unused. In July 2006 there is movement in the case. The Rheinbraun subsidiary Rheinbraun-Brennstoff GmbH based in Cologne sold the entire site to Barden Asset Management based in the British Virgin Islands.
This had previously been entered in the commercial register of the British Virgin Islands in June 2003 with the help of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, according to the internal files MDR Thuringia present. The purchase price that Barden paid for the property at the time: 20,000 euros.
Ex-Rheinbraun manager apparently involved
Twelve years later, the property changes hands again. It will be sold again in mid-May 2018 to a company in North Rhine-Westphalia. The purchase price for the still unused wasteland: this time 1.2 million euros. This deal has now drawn the attention of tax investigators and prosecutors.
Also inquiries from MDR Investigations had started at various authorities on the business dealings with the company from the Panama Papers. Because one and the same person was always involved in the two deals. The former Rheinbraun manager Wolfgang von W.*, who according to internal documents was responsible for the administration of the Rheinbraun real estate in the East German states – a 55-year-old scion and particularly at home on the high-society parket in Berlin.
According to the 2006 purchase agreement, von W. was on the seller’s side, together with a manager from Chemnitz who was also responsible for Rheinbraun real estate. At the time, Barden Asset Management had authorized a lawyer from Saxony to handle the transaction. But strangely enough, according to his own account, he had his expertise more in social and labor law than in real estate law.
Increase in value makes investigators suspicious
Wolfgang von W. reappears in the land deal concluded in 2018. Here he is now the managing director of the company in North Rhine-Westphalia, which bought the property for 1.2 million euros. This sudden increase in value from 20,000 euros to 1.2 million euros for a wasteland in Erfurt made the investigators suspicious.
Since the morning, tax investigators have been searching residential and business premises nationwide, including in Erfurt, North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin and Brandenburg. Among other things, they are investigating the suspicion that Wolfgang von W. could also be behind Barden Asset Management and could have concealed the property deal in his favor via this mailbox company from the Panama Papers – i.e. the 112,000 square meters should come into his possession.
Sham invoice for suspected tax evasion
But the investigators are also investigating the suspicion that a network of companies around entrepreneurs from W. der Barden Asset Management could have made bogus invoices – that is, money was paid for which there were no services. It is suspected that this spending could have been used to withhold and reduce taxes, which would mean tax evasion under the law if the suspicion were to be confirmed.
A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Erfurt confirmed this MDR the investigations and the currently ongoing searches in four federal states. It is about the allegation of evasion of corporate, trade and sales tax between 2010 and 2018. The spokesman did not want to give any further details with reference to the ongoing investigations. After MDR-Information is searched in North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Brandenburg and Thuringia.
A tax office from Berlin could have helped with these transactions, and the investigators also knocked on the door on Tuesday. It appears, among other things, in the correspondence between the Erfurt tax office and Barden Asset Management 2015. In addition to the law firm, a real estate consultant based in Brandenburg, a property management company in Erfurt and other companies in the Berlin area were also searched. Wolfgang von W. has not yet responded to a request.
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