Bernd L. (Name changed) is authorized to transfer amounts in the three-digit million range. But he also had to do with money elsewhere as a volunteer treasurer of the support association of a Munich university. Instead of watching over the club’s finances, the ministerial official put the money into his own pocket – over a period of ten years, from 2009 to 2019. By then, L. had unnoticed diverted 193,759 euros from the club’s treasury into his own account.
In July 2020, the Munich District Court therefore sentenced L. to a suspended sentence of eleven months for breach of trust in a particularly serious case and forgery of documents and also imposed a fine of 15,000 euros (300 daily rates of 50 euros each) on him. As a civil servant, the case also had disciplinary consequences for the father of the family. The Free State of Bavaria, as the employer, demanded L’s removal from his civil service status and was proven right in the first instance before the Munich Administrative Court.
This Wednesday, Bernd L., who was temporarily removed from his position in the Ministry of Science after the fraud was exposed, appealed to the Bavarian Administrative Court – without success. The presiding judge of the disciplinary senate said the act was “so serious that the maximum measure” of removal from civil service status could not be deviated from.
Those responsible only noticed that something was wrong with the finances of the association when the account was practically empty. Bernd L. then tried to conceal the fact that he was responsible for the money being gone. There was an apartment search. L. admitted everything. According to the files, he said “I take my share” to a police officer and cited the many unpaid overtime hours that he had worked over the years as a former employee of the university as the motive for his crime .
Another reason L. gave was that he had supported his daughter with the money he had taken from the support association’s coffers. With a halting voice, the ministry official reported to the judges of the Disciplinary Senate about his wife’s five miscarriages. When his daughter was born, she didn’t want for anything. According to the investigation, L. bought the child things worth 2,000 to 3,000 euros every week. This goes beyond the Senate’s imagination, said the presiding judge and asked Bernd L. what kind of wishes a child would have if he gets things for such a high amount every week. Bernd L. replied: “I have lost all measure. It is still inexplicable to me today.”
The former volunteer treasurer has now filed for personal bankruptcy. He has now paid back just over 52,000 euros of the embezzled money. L assured him that he could repair the damage. What worried him was “that I had failed in my character towards the people who trusted me.”