In the new mask affair in Bavaria, the Minister of Economics and Free Voters State Chief Hubert Aiwanger is now in the spotlight. Aiwanger admitted in a press release on Friday afternoon that one of the two suspected fraudulent businessmen from Upper Palatinate had contacted him, the minister, several times in the spring of 2020. The businessman had “asked for help with his mask deliveries”. As confirmed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, it is Matthias Penkala, local politician of the Free Voters in the Upper Palatinate. Penkala runs a company in Neumarkt with a partner. According to the Nuremberg-Fürth public prosecutor’s office, both company bosses came into custody this week.
You are accused of having sold incorrectly certified masks for more than seven million euros to the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) in spring 2020 shortly after the start of the corona pandemic. As Aiwanger announced when asked by SZ, his talks with Penkala took place in April 2020 – that is, in the same month as business was up. Penkala had turned to him “because in some cases he had not reached anyone at the LGL,” said Aiwanger.
There were more than ten million surgical masks in total. The supplier and seller was Penkala’s company from Neumarkt. At the time, Penkala had a video of the Central Bavarian Newspaper presented as a successful organizer of mask deliveries. “Thanks to our good contacts with China, we were able to form a kind of airlift. We collect 1.5 million units every two days.” The masks would then be distributed as doctors, hospitals and other “systemically important businesses”. It is currently difficult to assess the validity of the Nuremberg public prosecutor’s suspicion of fraud, as the investigators are not giving any details.
It remains to be seen whether the suspicion will be confirmed or not. The multi-million dollar deal raises not only legal but also political questions. Did Penkala manage to do business with the Free State with the help of his FW colleague Aiwanger? “I want clarity as soon as possible as to what the fraud allegations are,” Aiwanger said when asked by SZ shortly after the arrests became known on Thursday.
On Friday, the FW state executive sent a press release on the case. The board emphasized the presumption of innocence, but advised Penkala to suspend his FW membership and his party offices “with immediate effect until the matter is resolved”. Penkala is FW local chairman in Freystadt, where he is also on the city council. He is also a district councilor in Neumarkt. In the meantime, Penkala was also the state chairman of the Young Free Voters, the youngsters from the FW party.