Federal Minister of Finance and FDP leader Christian Lindner is again threatened with trouble because of the financing of his private property in the Nikolassee district of Berlin. According to daily mirror The Berlin public prosecutor’s office is examining whether they should ask the Bundestag for approval of criminal proceedings against Lindner. For this, Lindner’s immunity as a member of parliament would have to be lifted.
In the room stands dem daily mirror after the possible suspicion of accepting an advantage. The story behind it: Lindner bought a property in Berlin-Nikolassee at the beginning of 2021 – at that time he was not yet a minister, but only a member of parliament and party leader. Apparently, in several steps, he registered a land charge of a total of 2.8 million euros for his real estate financing with the Karlsruhe BB Bank. Before that, however, Lindner had already maintained a different kind of business relationship with the bank: he had appeared in an image video for them and had given lectures at events, for a fee. When this connection became known for the first time last year, both sides emphasized that the later loan was still customary in the market; So Lindner had no advantage.
Lindner received the last tranche of the loan as finance minister
The problem: 450,000 of the 2.8 million euros are said to have been registered as a land charge only in the summer of last year. And a few weeks before that, Lindner – no longer just as a mere member of parliament, but as Federal Minister of Finance – had recorded a video greeting for the bank’s centenary. the mirror first reported on it in autumn 2022. In the manuscript for the greeting, which the SZ has received, it says: “I like BB Bank from the ground up, because its history began with an act of personal initiative.” Lindner thanked the former CEO and praised the current one for the fact that the bank now wants to exploit the opportunities of digitization. “I’d be happy to keep in touch with you.”
Companies, associations or clubs regularly ask top politicians for greetings for events or publications. Because Lindner remained “in exchange” with the bank in another way after the friendly video message and increased his private loan again, this special greeting is in a context that the Berlin public prosecutor’s office is obviously interested in.
The Ministry of Finance referred to Lindner’s lawyer Christian Schertz. The shared the Süddeutsche Zeitung with: “Mr. Lindner started his private real estate financing long before he took over his ministerial post. All conditions were always customary in the market.” Granting a brief greeting on anniversaries such as the centenary of a bank was “part of the regular duties of a minister. His predecessors and colleagues did and do the same.” Schertz emphasized that there was no connection between the two processes. And Lindner reported and published his previous work as a speaker at customer events at the bank “in accordance with all the rules of the German Bundestag”. “That’s why,” says Schertz, “Mr. Lindner sees today’s reporting with composure.”