Prosecutor Steffen Rahrbach rattled off the 64-page indictment in a toneless staccato. The total of 20 long points that he reads blur into a mélange of years, company names and allegations in legal German that is difficult to understand acoustically. It goes like this for several minutes. But Rahrbach never slows down, doesn’t get bogged down, he’s prepared. He also had a long time. The indictment was first drafted nine years ago. Since then there have been repeated delays, most recently due to illness. This Thursday morning the time has come, the start of the process in the largest hall of the Leipzig Regional Court. It involves numerous cases, often involving five-figure sums, loans and opaque transactions in which television production companies, music shows and musicians’ managers play a major role. Opposite the prosecutor Rahrbach sits the man who once launched the careers of hit greats like Florian Silbereisen and Helene Fischer: the accused Udo Foht.
When the little man in the blue-grey suit entered the hall shortly before, a murmur and whisper went through the auditorium. It has now been almost eleven years since the allegations against the then influential television manager of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk became known and he disappeared from the public eye. Since then, Foht has changed significantly visually. The formerly short dark hair is now white-grey. He wears them tied together in a thin braid. Foht speaks softly through his FFP-2 mask. Name, place of birth, marital status, profession, he will not say much more than this personal data on the first day of the trial. The 71-year-old looks battered. The court has to provide him with headphones so that he can even hear the judges and the prosecution in the large courtroom with poor acoustics.
The public prosecutor accuses Udo Foht of fraud, breach of trust, bribery and tax evasion in several cases. In his function as MDR entertainment manager, he is said to have begged large sums of money for shows and television productions from several companies, but also from private individuals – knowing that he would not be able to repay the money. In many cases, a small Berlin company called “Just For Fun” also played a role, into whose business account the funds are said to have been deposited.
Udo Foht in 2008 alongside Florian Silbereisen (right), whose discoverer he is considered to be.
(Photo: imago stock&people)
The “Causa Foht”, as it is called on MDR, is one of the larger affairs and scandals of the public television station. The case came to light shortly after the multimillion-dollar Kika scandal, in which an employee of the children’s channel used fake bills to slip millions of euros into his own pocket. When a production company approached MDR almost a year later and talked about Foht and borrowed money, the broadcaster reacted immediately: He filed a criminal complaint. Foht has been suspended and should be dismissed without notice. Before the labor court, he then agreed with the broadcaster on a settlement and ordinary dismissal on December 31, 2011. Since then he has been waiting. First the indictment, then the start of the trial.
18 more days of negotiations are now scheduled. However, since many points in the indictment date back a long time and are difficult to prove, the process could possibly be shortened. The public prosecutor’s office and defense attorneys had already spoken in advance about a possible agreement. The prosecutor’s office is therefore ready to drop the allegations of embezzlement and tax evasion if Foht pleads guilty to the other charges involving bribery. If he made a “credible confession,” the court offered him a suspended sentence of between at least 12 and a maximum of 21 months, as Judge Michael Dahms explained.
Florian Silbereisen and his manager are also said to have been deprived of money
Foht’s defense attorney Lawrence Desnizza signaled a fundamental interest in an agreement. However, he wanted to consult with his client in detail. If Foht agrees, the trial could end quickly – and many witnesses currently charged would be spared an appearance in court. The list also includes familiar names, including the former river boat-Moderator Carsten Weidling, who was one of Foht’s protégés, the former music manager and television producer Werner Kimmig, who was responsible for programs such as Do you understand fun? and Everytime on Sundays was responsible, and Silbereisen manager Michael Jürgens. According to the indictment, Foht brought Florian Silbereisen and his manager 7,500 euros each.
The “Causa Foht” has recently become spicy again for the MDR. Because the husband of the previous director of the MDR state radio station in Saxony-Anhalt, Ines Hoge-Lorenz, was also involved in the case. A separate trial ended for him with a fine. His TV production company created the documentary series We are everywhere for MDR, where moderator Carsten Weidling wanted to travel the world and visit East German emigrants.
Hoge-Lorenz has since resigned from her MDR post. She personally failed to inform the MDR and its control bodies when she took up the post of director a year ago, she explained. She did not tell MDR immediately when her husband had already received a summons as a witness for the Foht trial a few weeks ago. “I should have made this transparent immediately,” she is quoted as saying in a new MDR announcement.