A few calls at the right time to the right numbers – and the Munich PR entrepreneur Andrea Tandler became a multimillionaire within a few weeks at the beginning of the Corona crisis: In spring 2020, she provided protective masks to ministries all over Germany and collected commissions of more than 48 euros Million Euros. Despite the widespread moral outrage over the distressed businesses, this was not legally objectionable. But Tandler did not properly tax the money he earned. On Friday morning, the Munich I Regional Court sentenced the daughter of the former CSU General Secretary and former Bavarian Finance Minister Gerold Tandler to four years and five months in prison.
Her business partner Darius N. has to be imprisoned for three years and nine months. Both are initially released after eleven months in custody. Only as soon as the verdict against both of them is final will the convicts be summoned to prison. According to a court spokesman, it is unclear when that will be.
Tandler reacts calmly to the verdict
Tandler’s lawyer viewed it as “positive that our client was allowed to leave the courtroom with us today.” Tandler, who suffers from health problems, was given the opportunity to “cure her illness as much as possible before she begins her prison sentence.” She will probably have another operation.
Tandler reacted to the verdict calmly – the approximate amount of the sentence was already known before the verdict was announced, as it was on the penultimate day of the trial an understanding had been reached between all those involved in the process. As a result of this agreement, both defendants made extensive confessions and paid the resulting tax damages.
Contacts with the family of Franz Josef Strauss were used
The court found it proven that some commissions had been incorrectly declared for tax purposes as business income and not as individual income. For this purpose, Tandler and N. founded a GmbH in Grünwald – there, compared to the state capital, only around half the trade taxes are due. However, Munich was the “place of management” back then.
For the business, Tandler used her contacts in politics, especially with the family of ex-CSU leader Franz Josef Strauss. “The mask deals came about through the defendant Tandler’s private contacts with her childhood friend Monika Hohlmeier,” said presiding judge Andrea Wagner in her verdict. The CSU European MP Hohlmeier is the daughter of Strauss, whose political companion Gerold Tandler was for many years.
Court: Tandler was the driving force
Andrea Tandler acted to Hohlmeier as if she only wanted to do something good by arranging masks, but kept quiet about her millions in commission, said Wagner. In fact, Hohlmeier made contacts for Tandler. Chats show that Tandler was aware of the impact of her family name – she and her business partners called a chat group “The Ministry”.
The court justified the different sentences for the defendants by saying that Tandler was the driving force in the mask business. Darius N. clearly played a subordinate role.
Income and trade taxes evaded
The two defendants had largely admitted the tax evasion allegations through their defense lawyers – specifically the allegations of income and trade tax evasion. The court closed the proceedings regarding gift tax evasion and Corona subsidy fraud on Tuesday.
“This has led to the sums in question being significantly reduced,” explained Munich criminal law professor Frank Saliger on BR24live, “most recently to an evaded amount of 11.9 million and damages of 7.8 million.” In its indictment, the public prosecutor’s office originally spoke of 23.5 million euros in evaded taxes.
Expert: Penalties appropriate
According to criminal procedure law expert Saliger, the penalties imposed by the regional court are “appropriate” compared to similar trials. The trial was not about the legality or “moral disreputability” of the very high commissions, but rather about their “subsequent tax processing”. And “serious mistakes” were made.
In commercial and tax criminal proceedings, which are very complex, there are always agreements between those involved in the proceedings, as in the current case, said the university professor at BR24live. “The law allows such agreements in appropriate cases.” The aim is to shorten the main hearing. “Part of an agreement is always a confession made here by the accused. This then leads to a corresponding reduction in punishment.”
Opposition criticizes government
The chairwoman of the Bavarian AfD parliamentary group, Katrin Ebner-Steiner, described Tandler’s conviction as “necessary and justified.” The constitutional state has thus punished an “unlawful private greed for profit” at the expense of the general public. At the same time, Ebner-Steiner spoke of “one of the biggest CSU affairs in the Free State”. Tandler’s business was only possible “because she was able to rely on a CSU Amigo network.”
Green Party member of the state parliament Florian Siekmann, who was deputy chairman of the Bavarian state parliament’s mask investigation committee, also welcomed the verdict. The process is an important step towards clearing up the mask affair – “but only one step”. Siekmann accused the government of refusing to challenge the mask deal arranged by Tandler. “In this way, the state government is letting millions of taxpayers’ money from the overpriced deal sink into the mask swamp instead of even trying to get them back.”
Ministry: allegations “absolutely baseless”
The Ministry of Health rejected the opposition criticism as “absolutely baseless”. “All of the Bavarian Ministry of Health’s decisions regarding the procurement of protective material at the start of the pandemic were all about protecting citizens as quickly as possible,” emphasized a ministry spokeswoman in response to a BR query. To speak of preferential treatment for certain providers is simply wrong. “It is clear that there were people outside the ministry who behaved morally incorrectly. But this fact must not be used to discredit the important work of the Bavarian Ministry of Health.”
The spokeswoman also described as false the accusation that the ministry had simply allowed dubious contracts to continue. “What is correct, however, is that the masks were inspected by the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) after delivery, defective goods were complained about and appropriately justified warranty claims were asserted – as always when there was concrete evidence.” According to the spokeswoman, the ministry and LGL are exploring all sensible legal steps against suppliers if they have not already been taken.
With information from dpa and AFP.