rbb crisis: 1.4 million euros for legal advisors


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As of: 01/16/2023 6:43 p.m

31 lawyers are loud rbb-Research so far with the processing of rbb-Crisis deals. Cost: more than 1.4 million euros. In addition, the cooperation between the lawyers and the Attorney General’s Office raises questions.

The law firm Lutz/Abel from Munich and Hamburg has been accused of grievances and faulty structures in the rbb examine, which were previously known in the press. In addition, it should make recommendations for action. A total of 31 lawyers from four law firms presented the rbb more than 1.4 million euros. This is evident from documents that rbb available exclusively. Lutz/Abel alone one million euros for 20 lawyers. People make phone calls, email, connect via video, coordinate. Most of the lawyers meticulously account for this exchange with their colleagues, but also with the other law firms. Hourly rate: 250 to 500 euros.

“Absurd and incomprehensible,” say several legal experts who looked at the bills. Two speak out publicly. The Vice Dean and Head of the Faculty of Law at Humboldt University, Martin Heger, can understand that the rbb gets legal advice selectively, for example from employment lawyers because of the controversial service contracts. But 31 lawyers – that’s a waste of radio contributions. Uwe Hellmann from the University of Potsdam says: “I don’t think that the effort is in reasonable proportion to the return if you employ a whole army of lawyers for allegations that are rather manageable in the matter.”

So far, the yield is also manageable. In the interim report before the Broadcasting Council in October 2022 – after a three-month review – there was not much more than what was previously in the press.

Duplicate work billed

But what exactly do the 31 lawyers – in addition to Lutz/Abel, two criminal law firms and another commercial law firm – do? In addition to the compliance investigation, the lawyers dealt with employment law, but also criminal law issues. Legal experts criticize that the lawyers charge double work and provide services for the Attorney General’s Office, for which the rbb not responsible at all. Since August 2022, the Attorney General’s Office has been investigating the former director and four other people. Each has its own legal counsel. But investigators are demanding documents and evidence from the rbb. A criminal law firm accounts for this matter: “Review, compilation and transfer of the documents”.

The criminal lawyers also charge for telephone conferences and meetings with investigators. According to Heger, he needs rbb simply handing over the documents because prosecutors wouldn’t ask for anything illegal. “I don’t really see any reason why you should get external legal advice and of course pay for it to process the list submitted by the public prosecutor’s office,” says Heger. But the bills show that not only the criminal law firm, but also the other law firms were dealing with it – apparently double the work. One example of many: Lutz/Abel also accounts for the “perspective (of) requests for information from the public prosecutor’s office”. Several times.

Ten days in August alone are about “correspondence (…) for information to the Attorney General’s Office, coordination and planning (of) the meeting with the Attorney General’s Office”. Alone three lawyer colleagues deal eight times in one day with the “coordination and review for the issuance of consulting contracts to the general public prosecutor’s office”. Hourly rate: 250 to 300 euros. But what needs to be agreed beforehand when documents are released? Lutz/Abel do not want to answer any questions about this.

Cooperation with the Attorney General’s Office: filtered documents?

beneficiary of the rbb paid work is the Attorney General’s Office. Not an isolated case. Experts like Hellmann have long noted the trend for prosecutors to rely on law firms. It is particularly critical if the law firms are paid by those who are in the sights of the investigators – as with rbb.

“The contributor pays the expenses for the lawyers, who ultimately take on a significant proportion of the work of the public prosecutor’s office, who collect material for the public prosecutor’s office, which would normally have to be collected by the public prosecutor’s office, which is paid for by the taxpayer,” says Heger.

“If it has been discussed for many hours what information is passed on to the public prosecutor’s office, then in the end the result will have been that not all information has been passed on, and then the public prosecutor’s office just did not get a complete picture. So, in my opinion After that, the public prosecutor’s office has to investigate itself,” says Hellmann. And Heger adds: “There is a risk that the pre-selection of the material by the lawyers will result in a certain list”.

Pre-filtered documents? It is part of the duty of investigators to get an overall picture, according to Section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. And since the management level of the rbb was involved and in the course of time more and more new allegations and new suspects emerged, the Attorney General’s Office should have confiscated everything from the beginning, says Heger. Otherwise there would be a risk that interested parties would only release “appropriate” evidence or that evidence would be suppressed, the experts say.

The head of the law faculty at Humboldt University Heger even thinks that the criminal offense of misappropriating contribution funds should be examined. The public prosecutor’s office in Berlin, meanwhile, confirms the cooperation with a law firm, but further “information will not be given due to ongoing investigations,” she writes on request. The law firm Lutz/Abel relies on confidentiality. the rbb also does not answer questions. The press office reports that they want to wait for the next report of the compliance investigation.

More than 1.4 million euros for 31 legal advisors. The bills for December and January haven’t even been made yet. It meets on Friday rbb-Committee of inquiry in the Brandenburg state parliament. The chairman of the CDU, Björn Lakenmacher, wants to address the case there. “That too is the contributor’s money, that the rbb shouldn’t waste it,” says Lakenmacher.

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