The customer, who was waiting to be admitted to the lockers at Commerzbank on Promenadeplatz, believed it was a film shoot or the show “Do you understand fun?” Like a bank robbery. But none of the employees at the bank reacted. 4.6 million are said to have disappeared from the lockers there at the end of 2017, beginning of 2018, or ten million. You do not know exactly. Because the injured Russian did not appear at the trial, which was now ending before the Munich I Regional Court.
Three defendants had to answer for aggravated gang theft, including a bank employee. The presiding judge, Gilbert Wolf, acquitted everyone, announced reparations for the imprisonment – and complained about the “disastrous conditions” and Commerzbank’s lack of will to clarify.
It’s the stuff of movies, with reality far surpassing the movie world in this case. Before December 2017, according to the public prosecutor’s office, at least seven people are said to have planned to loot lockers in the Commerzbank.
As an “insider”, the 60-year-old Silvia S., who worked in the bank for 30 years and looked after wealthy customers with lockers, is said to have told her accomplices about the processes in the bank. Her son is said to have planned the coup and another suspect to have pried open and taped the lockers to the bank during three “visits” between December 2017 and March 2018.
The wealthy owner didn’t seem to mind that the money might be gone
As the Eighth Trial Chamber saw it, hooded men “must have walked past five or six bank directors” with no response from employees. In general, the alarms during the burglary: 3089 were counted. The large number may also have been due to the fact that next door at the noble Italian “H’ugo’s” there was so much partying and dancing that there were so-called “stray alarms”. Apparently, the alarms were not taken seriously in the bank. Wolf also described the financial institution’s technical equipment as inadequate. “One can only wonder about this bank,” he said.
The court also found it difficult to even determine the amount of damage. The Russian millionaire, whose sister runs a chain of drugstores in her homeland, only testified once to the police and did not appear in court. Sometimes her son explained that there was no money missing, then he spoke of more than four million. The fact that the money could be gone didn’t seem to bother the lady. She is said to have parked another 72 million on Promenadeplatz, which have now been frozen.
Seven acquittals in one trial
The defense lawyers for the three accused – another four alleged gang members have already been acquitted – criticized the incomplete investigative work of the police. The process had already been terminated two years ago. At the time, defense attorney Adam Ahmed filed a motion that the hearing should be suspended due to investigative deficits.
A year and a half later they started again, but the evidence was still thin. According to Ahmed, it also gave the impression that neither the Russian woman nor the bank had any interest in clarifying the matter. Ahmed referred to a judgment according to which a bank is liable if the necessary security measures are missing. In the end, even the public prosecutor’s office requested acquittals for everyone.
Renate Christ, press spokeswoman at Commerzbank, told the SZ that the safe system always complied with the security regulations and the state of the art. “The system is checked and serviced several times a year.” The many alarm messages come about because a message is triggered for every technical event, such as operator errors when unlocking the compartment. “The bank’s reaction to each individual cause of the report is specifically defined.”
Silvia F. said after the verdict that she had woken up every morning thinking about the trial for the past four years. “The years have completely changed my life.” She loved her work, but has now settled.