Edmund Radlinger, the longtime chairman of the Munich Showmen’s Association, has been sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion by the Munich District Court. The sentence was suspended on probation. The 70-year-old, who was represented at the Wiesn with the “Family Place” and the “Münchner Weißbiergarten”, must also pay a fine of 7,000 euros (350 daily rates of 20 euros). In addition, judge Katalin Tözsér ordered the confiscation of compensation for the value of 285,118 euros. This corresponds to the profit that the court found the accused to have made through unfair methods. Radlinger has now paid an amount of 146,000 euros as compensation for damage.
The verdict was preceded by a deal, i.e. an understanding between the court, the public prosecutor’s office and the defense. In the event of a confession, Radlinger has been given the prospect of the imprisonment that has now been imposed. Some of the allegations from the indictment were dropped. The 70-year-old was allowed to remain seated when the verdict was announced due to his poor health. He accepted the decision on the outside, completely motionless.
According to the investigation, in the years 2010 to 2013 Radlinger had smuggled payments of income tax, including the solidarity surcharge, and trade tax that were actually due past the Treasury. In addition, the indictment accused him of reducing the sales tax for the period from 2010 to 2014. In their indictment, the public prosecutor’s office had assumed that the accused “did not or not fully record the proceeds or sales from his individual company and from the Munich Weißbiergarten Betriebs GmbH, which were received predominantly in cash”. In some cases, he also submitted no or incorrect tax returns. Considerable amounts of tax were evaded in this way.
The investigators had originally assumed damage of more than one million euros
Originally, the investigators at the public prosecutor’s office even assumed a sum of just over one million euros. However, because the court dropped part of the indictment, Radlinger’s lawyer Michael Reinhart estimates that the damage caused now amounts to around 800,000 euros. In her verdict, Judge Tözsér assumed a total of seven cases of tax evasion. She rated five of them as particularly difficult.
“Every taxpayer makes mistakes,” said Radlinger in his confession, whom Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) had awarded the gold medal “Munich shines” in 2017. But the amounts estimated by the tax office are not correct, he assured. The exact amount is currently still the subject of ongoing fiscal court proceedings. Prosecutor Sabine Gleich emphasized in her pleading, however, that the tax office’s estimates on which the indictment was based were correct. Among other things, Radlinger credited her with his confession, but emphasized that she had the impression that it was “not really based on remorse and insight”. In the present case, the amount of the evaded amounts is “massive”.
Against the background of the corona pandemic and the associated poor financial prospects for showmen, the public prosecutor called for a lower fine of 17,500 euros (500 daily rates of 35 euros). Lawyer Michael Reinhart was brief in view of the agreement to shorten the procedure, but emphasized that his client had not made a “confession of purpose”. Even in his last word before the verdict was announced, Radlinger did not take direct responsibility for the crimes he was accused of. His mistake was that he “fell for a tax consultant” and relied on consultants. Nevertheless, said the 70-year-old, he will accept the verdict.
Edmund Radlinger has already given up his showman positions
Even if the district court’s decision is not yet final – for Edmund Radlinger it probably means the end of his decades-long career as a showman, including at the Oktoberfest. The 70-year-old no longer has his itinerant trade card – a requirement for showmen to participate at the Oktoberfest, for example. On the fringes of the negotiation, Radlinger said when asked that he had not been deprived of his district administration department, as some had reported. Rather, he submitted the itinerant trade card of his own accord. He also gave up his post as president of the Munich showmen’s association some time ago, as well as his position as vice-president of the German showmen’s association.