At first there were too few protective masks against the corona virus. When the pandemic began, governments, clinics, and care facilities bought everything the overpriced market had to offer. A few months later there were mountains of masks. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) also sat, figuratively speaking, like many others on such a mountain and had to see where and how goods that had already been ordered could be stored. In this tricky situation, a strange incident allegedly occurred on June 23, 2020. Spahn is said to have turned to the former CSU member of the Bundestag and health politician Georg Nüßlein and offered him 30 million FFP2 masks, “which could be delivered directly to South America from China”.
At least that is what Nüßlein’s lawyer claims in a statement he made Süddeutscher Zeitung, NDR and WDR answered questions about the mask affair. A minister who wants to use an MP to get rid of superfluous masks from China in South America? That would be unusual. But the Ministry of Health presents the matter exactly the other way around on request. It was not Spahn who approached Nüßlein. Rather, Nüßlein “offered himself as a mediator in telephone calls”. Neither Spahn nor other representatives of the ministry had ever “actively asked MPs for assistance with reselling”. The only one who “ever offered himself for this purpose was Mr. Nüsslein”. So the ministry.
In addition to the mask deal in which the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating, did Nüßlein also want to earn other money from health deals? Nüßlein’s lawyer explains that his client has “received no agency fee” in all cases that are now publicized. In these cases, no contracts were signed at all. The ministry says it gave protective masks from its own stocks and other materials to other countries only free of charge.
Nüßlein could be entitled to a fee of more than one million euros
Why Nüßlein is bringing the China-South America case to the public through his lawyer, however it may have happened, is easy to explain. The ex-MP would like to rebut the allegations against him in the mask affair. Nüßlein claims not to have acted as a member of the mask business that is being investigated. That was very clear, also for Spahn. After all, he himself asked Nüßlein several times for support in procurement processes in the context of the corona pandemic, and that “expressly outside of the mandate”. This is how Nüßlein’s lawyer explains.
Legally, the former CSU health politician would be helped in this way. If the MP at the time had not acted as a MP in the mask deal he brokered, then there would be no bribery of MPs. The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office would have to close the files. And Nüßlein would have to get back the 660,000 euros fee that he received at the time and that were later confiscated by the judiciary. And he would also be entitled to an agreed additional fee of 560,000 euros.
With Spahn’s help, if his portrayal were correct, Nüßlein could even become a mask millionaire. But in all of these cases Spahn and the Ministry speak of the MP and not of the private or businessman Nüßlein. This also applies to another process that the former CSU politician is now making public through his lawyer and which is also supposed to exonerate him. Nüßlein claims to have been asked by Spahn in mid-2020 to help resell 1,000 ventilators for Covid 19 patients to South America. At that time there was apparently a “considerable surplus” of such devices, explains Nüßlein’s lawyer.
And again the Ministry of Health presents the matter the other way round. It was not Spahn who approached Nüßlein. “MdB Nüsslein on his part offered Spahn to mediate accordingly, since he has contacts in these countries through his work as a member of parliament and these had a special need due to the development of the pandemic in these countries.” Then the businessman Thomas Limberger reported to the Ministry of Health. “This approach was unusual,” explains the ministry.
An investment manager is also among the accused
Limberger held top positions at General Electric and other international companies before founding a private investment firm. He is well connected around the world. He was involved in the mask business around Nüßlein and the longtime CSU politician Alfred Sauter. He is one of the suspects in the Attorney General’s investigation. Like all the other suspects, he rejects the charge that the fees for Nüßlein and Sauter were bribes.
In the case of ventilators, “Limberger made an offer through MdB Nüßlein,” explains the Ministry of Health and refers to an email dated July 14, 2020. At that time, an employee from Spahn’s ministerial office wrote to Limberger: “I had the information from MdB Nüsslein that Your request includes 1000 devices. ” Information about the ventilators followed in the mail. And the hint, should Limberger have a “substantiated interest”, then the ministry will approach the manufacturing company.
Limberger’s law firm announced on request, “Our client was asked whether he knew buyers for ventilators that were ordered too much”. Limberger then asked the ministry for more information and did not pursue the matter any further. At no time in this context Limberger “corresponded, talked or even thought” about an honor from Nüßlein.