The longtime CSU politicians Alfred Sauter and Georg Nüßlein as well as the PR entrepreneur Andrea Tandler can assume that their commissions in the millions were legal for mask deals. According to SZ information, this can be found in a detailed statement by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe and a decision by the Munich I Regional Court. Both events are not publicly known so far.
If the point of view of the federal prosecutor’s office prevails, then a group of five mediators led by Sauter and Nüßlein would have legally collected ten million euros. The mediator group would also be entitled to a further 1.5 million euros that have not yet been paid; in total that would be 11.5 million euros. Sauter would be entitled to a good 1.2 million euros, which the judiciary secured at one of his daughters’ companies. Nüßlein would get back 660,000 euros that he had arrested at a company and would be entitled to a further 600,000 euros that had not yet been received.
Andrea Tandler, in turn, daughter of the former CSU General Secretary and ex-Minister Gerold Tandler, would have collected a commission of 48.3 million euros together with a partner for brokering sales of corona protective clothing, especially to the Federal Ministry of Health. In all of these cases, the public prosecutor’s office is mainly investigating suspected corruption. According to the current state of affairs, there are signs that these investigations will come to an end in the course of the year. Tax investigations remained. But the commissions themselves would have been perfectly legal.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office is the federal public prosecutor’s office; it is headed by Attorney General Peter Frank. In a current case at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe regarding Sauter and Nüßlein, the federal prosecutor’s office has taken the side of the two former leading CSU politicians. According to the federal prosecutor, the mask commissions do not violate the anti-corruption paragraph for parliamentarians. This emerges from a 50-page statement by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office at the end of February for the BGH, which has to decide on this case.
Serious setbacks for the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office agrees with the decisions of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Munich from November 2021. The OLG had interpreted paragraph 108e of the Criminal Code (bribery and bribery of elected officials) in favor of Sauter and Nüßlein: According to the “unambiguous will” of the Bundestag, it is not a violation of the law if a member of parliament uses the “authority of his mandate” and his contacts, to influence decisions outside Parliament. Paragraph 108e refers to processes in the parliaments.
In March 2020, shortly after the start of the pandemic, Sauter and Nüßlein brokered mask sales from the Hessian textile company Lomotex to the health ministries in Bavaria and the federal government as well as to the Federal Ministry of the Interior totaling almost 63 million euros. According to the Munich Higher Regional Court and now also the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, this was legal. The two CSU politicians had largely successfully defended themselves against searches and the arrest of mask commissions at the Munich Higher Regional Court.
The Munich public prosecutor’s office, which was investigating suspected corruption in this case, lodged a complaint with the BGH in Karlsruhe against the decisions of the Higher Regional Court. The fact that the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office takes a stand for Nüßlein and Sauter is a serious setback for the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office. It is therefore becoming increasingly likely that, after the Munich Higher Regional Court, the Federal Court of Justice will also come to the conclusion that the commissions for Sauter and Nüßlein for transactions with corona protective masks were legal.
If that were to happen, the Munich public prosecutor’s office would have no choice but to drop the investigation into Sauter, Nüßlein and other suspects. An indictment, which would then have to be decided by the Munich Higher Regional Court and finally the BGH in Karlsruhe, would no longer have any chance of success.
However, Sauter and Nüßlein have been sidelined politically because of their mask affairs. Sauter had to leave the CSU parliamentary group and give up his seat on the CSU executive board and other party offices. However, he is still a member of the Bavarian state parliament. Nüßlein, previously deputy head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, resigned from the CSU and lost his mandate because he was no longer put forward as a candidate in the new Bundestag elections.
Gerold Tandler’s daughter Andrea is also suspected of corruption. And here, too, according to the current state of affairs, it is becoming apparent that the public prosecutor’s offices in Munich and Berlin investigating this case will have to stop their proceedings against Andrea Tandler and her partner Darius N. in the course of the year if no groundbreaking new findings are made. The Munich I public prosecutor is investigating the suspicion of money laundering.
Investigations into suspected corruption are still ongoing
The investigating authority believes that part of the 48.3 million euros that Andrea Tandler and her partner received were intended for third parties. In order to use bribes to ensure that the Federal Ministry of Health bought masks and other corona protective clothing from the Swiss trading company Emix for around 700 million euros. Andrea Tandler and her partner were suspected of having laundered money for this purpose. Tandler brokered these deals through CSU channels.
The Munich I Regional Court has now upheld a complaint by the Tandler subsidiary against a search by the public prosecutor’s office on suspicion of money laundering. From the point of view of the court, the suspicions were not sufficient for the raid. This is a setback for the Munich I public prosecutor; and indirectly also for the public prosecutor’s office in Berlin. This determined in connection with the mask deals between Emix and the Federal Ministry of Health on suspicion of corruption. This is directed against Andrea Tandler and her partner as well as against unknown persons. There are no investigations in Germany against those responsible for Emix.
So far, however, there is no information as to who should have received a bribe. Despite the decision of the Munich I Regional Court, a rapid termination of the preliminary proceedings is not to be expected. The German investigators apparently want to wait and see what files come from Switzerland via legal assistance. That can take a while. If there are no new findings on the suspicion of money laundering and corruption in Germany, then it would be foreseeable that these investigations would finally be discontinued.