So far, the main focus of this trial has been Alexander B., whom the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses of commercial corruption in 101 cases, serious breach of trust in 55 cases and tax evasion in nine cases. Him of all people. Alexander B. is no stranger to the court, he was chief public prosecutor, he knows the halls, the corridors, the colleagues, and they know him as an excellent lawyer, an excellent press spokesman, as an expert in billing fraud in the healthcare sector. He was one who fought corruption. At least that’s what everyone thought.
“Corruption in state garb,” wrote the Frankfurter Rundschau.
“Chief prosecutor in handcuffs in court,” wrote the picture.
And the journalists continued to take notes, because it is also an extraordinary process. They took notes when B. confessed to having taken bribes over the years in criminal proceedings that he conducted himself. When he talked about his mother, who was overwhelmed, about his father, who sexually abused him, how he later concentrated on work to distract himself: “My professional success was my only purpose in life.” And of course also when he told what he needed all the money for.
Only: B. is not the only accused.
And so on Wednesday, the third day of the trial, his school friend Bernhard A., 56 years old, an entrepreneur from the Taunus, was discussed in more detail. The public prosecutor’s office accuses him of commercial bribery and subsidy fraud. But what exactly is it about?
The lawyer Alexander B. worked his way up to head the “Central Office for Combating Property Crimes and Corruption in the Health Care System”. In other words, he investigated alleged billing fraudsters, pharmacists, chief physicians, senior physicians. Because such procedures often involve specialist knowledge, external experts are commissioned to prepare reports, and this is where his school friend Bernhard A. comes into play. In 2005, the two men founded the company “medi transparent”, which employed experts to whom B. is said to have placed almost all orders. A self-sustaining system – and an expensive one. According to the indictment, the company should have taken 12.5 million euros at the expense of the state treasury between 2010 and 2020 alone. The school friend Bernhard A. is said to have set up an account to which he regularly transferred money to B., between 2015 and 2020 alone it is said to have been 280,000 euros.
Bernhard A. is sitting in the front row of the dock this Wednesday, a man in a gray suit. He printed out his statement, his confession is short. Yes, he says, he co-founded “medi transparent”. His work had become too much for him, he had suffered a sudden hearing loss, the company should be a second mainstay. As a legal layman, however, he always believed “that the orders were 100 percent legal and correct”. He had no influence on investigations.
B. then approached him around 2009 and asked him to share in the profits because he had “high costs from his partner”. He then opened the account and transferred money. “It’s clear that I shouldn’t have given him the money.”
Alexander B. had previously stated that his partner at the time – an expert from “medi transparent” – could not handle money. Again and again he balanced her account and gave her a total of around 100,000 to 120,000 euros. However, helping her was his free decision. B.’s partner at the time has now died. It was she who reported him back then.