In the process of campaign donations, the CSU state parliament member Franz Rieger was found guilty of extortion and aiding and abetting tax evasion. The regional court of Regensburg sentenced him to a fine of 300 daily rates of 400 euros each.
The pleadings of the prosecution and defense had been far apart in the process: While the prosecutor pleaded for a conviction for extortion on Thursday, the lawyer Riegers said there was no extortion. Both sides also assumed a conviction for aiding and abetting tax evasion.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, Rieger solicited donations from a building contractor in 2013. When the entrepreneur offered 1000 to 2000 euros, Rieger is said to have asked for 50,000 euros and said: “You already know who will decide on the building projects and the building permits in the future.” The businessman felt threatened and agreed to donate. At the expense of Rieger, the prosecutor assessed, among other things, that he had taken advantage of his position as a member of parliament.
Rieger’s defense attorney, Dirk Lammer, said that in the conversation with the building contractor, his client did not intend to influence him in his donation decision. While Rieger had “in a reproachable way” agreed to payment transactions when soliciting donations, which were to be seen as aiding and abetting tax evasion, “but he never blackmailed anyone”. Rieger’s sentence on the award of construction contracts was an “unfortunate formulation” and a reaction to the contractor’s statement that the CSU in Regensburg was not significant.