He is known here like a sore thumb, nevertheless: the personal information must be there, Winfried Bausback (CSU), chairman of the mask investigation committee, asks them. Name, occupation, summonable address? “Sauter, Alfred, lawyer, member of the state parliament”, charge about “Maximilianeum, Munich”. Then Sauter, who is not summoned as a witness, but as a person affected, analogous to a suspect in a criminal case, announces: “No testimony” – and folds his arms until he quickly leaves the room. Before that, Florian Siekmann (Greens), deputy head of the committee, says: He regrets that Sauter “does not want to participate in the investigation” – while he does talk to the press.
A different process, but with a similar result, follows with the former CSU member of the Bundestag Georg Nüßlein, also a central figure in the mask affair. It sounds like he regrets not being able to testify this Thursday; on the advice of his legal counsel. “As difficult as that is for me,” says Nüßlein, because “this committee of inquiry has its reasoning.” The Munich Higher Regional Court came to the conclusion that there was no initial suspicion of corruption; however, there is an investigation. So no statement. And the third, eagerly awaited person that day didn’t even show up: PR entrepreneur Andrea Tandler.
It’s an important day at the U Mask Committee. If those invited spoke, it would be about the mask deals with the companies Emix and Lomotex and the involvement of CSU politicians in them – the two previous main cases in the complex that the investigative committee wants to clarify. And according to the CSU MEP Monika Hohlmeier, it is the second meeting with prominent witnesses.
Hohlmeier, who had arranged government contacts for Tandler, defended her role on Monday: she passed on the request from her good friends out of a sense of responsibility in a difficult corona situation. She neither asked for nor was offered a commission and also knew nothing about Tandler’s million-dollar fee. The findings on Thursday, however, remain narrow.
The former CSU member of the Bundestag Georg Nüßlein is silent in the committee of inquiry.
(Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa)
Sauter, ex-Justice Minister of the CSU and now a non-attached member of parliament, brokered a mask contract worth millions between the Bavarian Ministry of Health and Lomotex as a lawyer in March 2020 and later secretly collected more than 1.2 million euros, which went to a company owned by his daughters. Nüßlein, who was in the Bundestag at the time, also benefited from mask deals that he brokered between Lomotex and federal ministries. Nüßlein collected 660,000 euros, another 540,000 euros were to follow, but that never came about.
When these deals blew up, the CSU got into one of its biggest crises in March 2021. Later it turned out that Andrea Tandler, daughter of the CSU grandee Gerold Tandler, had collected 48 million euros with a partner for arranging other mask deals. The Swiss trading company Emix had supplied several ministries in Germany with corona protective clothing for more than 700 million euros and made high profits; well over 100, maybe even 200 or 300 million euros. Emix does not give any numbers.
Entrepreneurs from Switzerland do not have to appear
Emix owners Luca Steffen and Jascha Rudolphi were invited as witnesses, but did not come. As a Swiss citizen, you are not obliged to do so. Bausback now announces that Switzerland is being asked for international administrative assistance; the possibility of written statements should also be granted.
It’s different with Tandler. She should come, but called in sick at the first appointment at the end of April. Bausback then sent her a new summons for May 12 – with the note that if she wanted to cancel again because of illness, she would have to be examined by the medical officer. Again, Tandler brought up “health reasons”. According to Bausback, a forensic medical opinion on the “ability to be questioned” is being requested.
Tandler does not publicly comment on her commissions, and there are no photos of her either. As a witness, she would involuntarily have to go public for the first time. Even if she has the right to remain silent because she and her partner Darius N. are suspected of money laundering and tax evasion in two investigations. Both deny the allegations. N. came to the committee at the end of April and refused to testify; but he is less in the media focus.
Meanwhile, it is becoming apparent that another mask shop will also occupy the committee. At the end of March 2020, despite its own concerns, the Ministry of Health bought masks from a Passau company for more than 18 million euros on instructions from the State Chancellery. The tip came from the then CSU Federal Minister Andreas Scheuer, who comes from Passau. In contrast to Sauter, Nüßlein and Tandler, no commissions were paid as things stand.
The problem in this case is different: it later turned out that a number of masks did not meet the standards; they have been blocked. Green MP Siekmann accuses Prime Minister Markus Söder and State Chancellery Minister Florian Herrmann (both CSU) of having “pushed through” this mask purchase “against all professional advice”. Recalls would have kept the administration “occupied for months in the middle of the crisis, although there were more important things to do”. Bausback was outraged on Thursday about the “piercings” that did not serve the purpose of the investigation. But you will also “look at” this process and “subject to an evaluation”.
In an answer to an SZ inquiry and to inquiries from the state parliament, the Ministry of Health refers to the dramatic “mask emergency” at the time. There was an extremely high demand in nursing homes and clinics, for example. “The goal had to be to purchase suitable protective material in large quantities – without taking unforeseeable financial or health risks.” That is exactly what happened. You have secured yourself in the purchase contract. The defective masks were gradually replaced by the end of 2020.