The Berlin public prosecutor’s office has opened its investigation against the former Picture-Editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt hired. The media group Axel Springer suspected and reported its former manager of fraud in April. “The initial suspicion has not been confirmed by the investigation,” a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office told dpa. The FAZ had previously reported on it. The proceedings initiated were therefore discontinued on October 23rd.
Springer had the former Picture-Boss Julian Reichelt, who had to vacate his post in the fall of 2021 following allegations of abuse of power, was accused of passing confidential documents to the Berlin newspaper to have leaked. Because Holger Friedrich, the publisher of the regional newspaper in question, had reported Reichelt to Springer’s legal department.
In addition to the criminal complaint, Springer also demanded severance pay from the former editor-in-chief in a labor dispute. However, the proceedings before the labor court surprisingly ended around two months ago with an out-of-court settlement. The criminal investigation continued independently after the public prosecutor’s office confirmed initial suspicion in the spring.
So far, the authority has not provided any details about the allegations. Now it was said that the publisher’s documents and files were destroyed. Springer accused Reichelt of destroying the documents, according to his own statement. He pretended that he had fulfilled an important prerequisite for receiving the agreed severance payment when he left the media group.
In fact, Reichelt is said to have been asked by the publisher in connection with another legal dispute to make the documents available and not to destroy them, the public prosecutor’s office has now said. The former editor-in-chief is said to have complied with this request. According to the public prosecutor’s office, it can be assumed that when the settlement amount was paid out, the publisher was fully aware that the accused still had documents. The public prosecutor’s office said there was no evidence of attempted fraud.