A lot of money, a lot of criticism, but otherwise no trouble, that’s what it looked like for a long time with the million dollar deals with corona protective masks that Andrea Tandler brokered. The daughter of the former minister and CSU general secretary Gerold Tandler has become rich after mask sales by the Swiss company Emix to the health ministries in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia and above all to the federal health ministry. According to SZ information, the Tandler subsidiary, together with a partner, was entitled to commission of 34 to 51 million euros through the joint company Little Penguin (Little Penguin).
Now there is trouble: The Munich I public prosecutor’s office is investigating Andrea Tandler on suspicion that she may not have handled everything correctly for tax purposes. Little Penguin is based in Grünwald, a suburb of Munich with low business tax rates. When Andrea Tandler started to broker the deals, it was evidenced by emails that went through her Munich PR agency Pfennigturm. The city of Munich demands higher trade tax rates from the companies located there than the municipality of Grünwald.
The investigation became known through a request from the Landtag member Florian Siekmann from the Greens. Siekmann had asked the state government whether Tandler’s intermediary activity had produced “evidence of trade tax fraud”. And whether an initial suspicion of trade tax fraud is being investigated by Andrea Tandler in the context of police or public prosecution investigations.
The Ministry of Justice replied: “According to the Munich I Public Prosecutor’s Office, the matter raised is the subject of criminal investigations there. The investigations are ongoing.” The Ministry of Justice did not give details because of tax secrecy. In his inquiry Siekmann referred to the different offices of the Pfennigturm agency in Munich and the Little Penguin company in Grünwald.
Andrea Tandler never spoke
She SZ asked Andrea Tandler and her lawyer Tuesday morning for a current statement on this investigation. So far, however, no comment has been made. Andrea Tandler and her lawyer never responded to several previous SZ inquiries about other matters. It remains to be seen whether the suspicion confirmed by the Justice Department is confirmed or not. A preliminary investigation does not automatically lead to indictment or trial or conviction. If the allegations collapse, such proceedings will be discontinued.
The investigations against Andrea Tandler are unusual in that several thousand companies have an official headquarters in Grünwald in order to benefit from the low trade tax rates there. Numerous other companies can be found in the two-story office building not far from the market square where Tandler’s Little Penguin GmbH is based. At the entrance there is a bell with 61 names and a letterbox that Little Penguin GmbH shares with five other companies.
In spring 2020 after the start of the corona pandemic, the Swiss company Emix sold masks and other protective clothing in Germany for almost 700 million euros, mainly to the Federal Ministry of Health, through the mediation of the Tandler subsidiary. The current tax investigations have nothing to do with Emix.
Andrea Tandler made contact with the Bavarian Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Health through the CSU MEP Monika Hohlmeier, the daughter of Franz Josef Strauss. The tax investigations also have nothing to do with Hohlmeier. The CSU politician said she didn’t ask for the contact brokerage and didn’t get anything. There is also no evidence whatsoever that Hohlmeier would have benefited in any way. The CSU politician has repeatedly stated that at the time, like many other MPs, she passed on information about possible mask purchases in order to be able to help with the procurement of protective clothing.
Florian Siekmann speaks of “greed for profit”
After Monika Hohlmeier had established contact with the Bavarian Ministry of Health for Andrea Tandler, the Tandler subsidiary contacted the Ministry “using contact details” from her Munich-based company Pfennigturm. This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Health to a state parliament request from the Greens. The millions in commissions for Andrea Tandler and a partner of hers then ran through Little Penguin, a company based in Grünwald, which was later entered in the commercial register.
The Green MP Siekmann suspects Tandler of trying to “get as much as possible” out of the mask deals while avoiding the higher Munich trade tax rate. “The greed for profit that was dealt with here in the pandemic emergency leaves me stunned.” Siekmann says that everything is far from clear. The Greens now wanted to illuminate the investigation committee set up in the state parliament to clear up the mask affair. At Andrea Tandler you will “look very carefully”.
The presumption of innocence applies to the Tandler daughter as well as to other suspects in preliminary proceedings.