Balance of the Wirecard U Committee Is Scholz complicit?

Status: 06/22/2021 5:00 p.m.

The Wirecard committee of inquiry presented its report one year after the accounting scandal became known. But who is politically responsible remains open. The opposition and the Union accuse Finance Minister Scholz. For years the Wirecard Group has been highly praised – an innovative business model, a fantastic sales development, the hope in the Dax. And then almost two billion euros disappeared from the balance sheet practically overnight. “It is a criminal case,” says Matthias Hauer, chairman of the Union in the committee of inquiry. And after seven months of studying the files and questioning witnesses, it is clear that the Union is primarily responsible for the bankruptcy of billions: “Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and the management of the Federal Ministry of Finance bear political responsibility for the Wirecard scandal,” said Hauer. They knowingly looked the other way when the rumors about irregularities in the Wirecard management made the rounds. Fabio de Masi from the Left puts it even more drastically: “This billions of dollars lie, this Wirecard illusion factory was only conceivable because they organized a political network to hide the fact that there wasn’t much substance under the covers. “ De Masi recalled the countless investors who would have lost a total of more than 20 billion euros in share assets due to the Wirecard bankruptcy.

Opposition demands political consequences

Florian Toncar from the FDP also thinks that someone from politics should have apologized to the injured party: “I think it is a major annoyance for many citizens that in the end there is no one in such scandals who will also stand up admits his own mistakes. ”

But back to Olaf Scholz. As a witness in the committee of inquiry, he had considerable gaps in memory, complained the spokesman for the Union and opposition parties. Lisa Paus from the Greens thinks that Olaf Scholz did not exactly recommend himself as a candidate for Chancellor: “I think that especially in these times Germany needs a leader who can also admit mistakes. And I think that is something that Olaf Scholz is not given. ” Kay Gottschalk from the AfD was the chairman of the committee of inquiry – Union and the other opposition factions attested to having carried out the office professionally and with colleagues. In the matter he also misses political consequences at a higher level. “A minister would have resigned 20 years ago. And that is a cultural change that we are experiencing here in Germany that I do not like,” said Gottschalk.

SPD defends Scholz

And the SPD? It takes its candidate for chancellor out of the political line of fire. The allegations against Scholz are just election campaign noise, says finance politician Cansel Kiziltepe: “Olaf Scholz bears no political responsibility for the Wirecard scandal. And the allegations that have been made have not been confirmed.”

On Friday there is still a Bundestag debate on the political assessment of the scandal – then the public prosecutor has the floor. She is investigating the former management of Wirecard for, among other things, embezzlement, falsification of accounts and fraud committed by gang. It is not yet possible to foresee when there will be criminal proceedings

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Scholz in the Wirecard scandal Political leadership from yesterday

Status: 22.06.2021 5:50 p.m.

Finance Minister Scholz bears political responsibility for the Wirecard scandal. An apology would be appropriate. Because of his antiquated understanding of political leadership, there won’t be.

A comment by Tobias Betz, ARD capital studio

After eight months of the committee of inquiry, the question of political responsibility remains. And that is a fundamental question of political culture. Because there is not a word of regret from the government. Let’s not kid ourselves: this is shameful, but the reality.

The finance minister is politically responsible

Let’s take a look at the situation: The Wirecard case is one of the biggest financial scandals in Germany. At least 24 billion euros in damage. Everything happened in front of the eyes of the responsible authorities, which did not do their job in any way and at any time. And that is why there is certainly someone who is politically responsible – and that is the Federal Minister of Finance in this financial scandal. But Olaf Scholz makes it easy for himself. Not responsible, not involved, more like an observer. He could very well have – and should have – intervened. Because the Ministry of Finance has the legal and technical supervision of the Bafin. This is the financial supervisory authority. And she made gross miscalculations; she even supported Wirecard at times, reported journalists who had clues.

Not ready for self-reflection

Mistakes have been made. And the Scholz Ministry is responsible for ensuring that the financial supervision process works. If it just doesn’t work, then Scholz, as a minister, could be the size and have the courage to admit that mistakes have happened here. Honest words of regret. Society doesn’t really ask that much, a “Mea Culpa!”, “My mistake!” Is often enough. But Scholz is apparently not ready for this kind of error culture, critical self-reflection.

Don’t make any mistakes, least of all admit none

Maybe he’s not ready to do so because of the election campaign. Just don’t make any mistakes, least of all admit any mistakes. Protect yourself, after all, he is a candidate for chancellor. Namely one who advertises to have a lot of government experience. But leadership doesn’t include ironing out and fending off everything. That is an understanding of political leadership from the past. Mistakes happen, people make mistakes and they are allowed to admit them. That would be honest and brave. But as a consequence, calls for resignation like those from the AfD are out of place.

The Chancellor apologized

That promotes this unspeakable error culture in politics. If every mistake immediately costs the post, then it is already clear that there can be no political Mea Culpa. Chancellor Angela Merkel once broke with this culture of mistakes. During the lockdown policy at Easter. She had to withdraw an overnight decision to introduce an additional public holiday. But she didn’t do that quietly and without comment. No, she stood in front of Parliament and apologized in public for it. Apparently this remains an exception. But the Chancellor has the format of a chancellor. Editorial note Comments generally reflect the opinion of the respective author and not that of the editors

Wirecard scandal What’s left of the U committee

As of: 06/22/2021 9:16 a.m.

A year ago, the financial services provider Wirecard went bankrupt. A U-Committee of the Bundestag tried to find out why controllers and supervision failed. The committee has now completed its work.

From Tobias Betz, ARD capital studio

Head of authorities fired, insider trading uncovered: A reform should turn Germany’s financial supervision inside out. The committee of inquiry into the Wirecard scandal has initiated a lot. More than 100 witnesses were questioned and thousands of documents turned over.

Florian Toncar did this for the FDP: The investigative committee had come to a clear conclusion. “We made it very clear that the Wirecard case was not a natural disaster that no one could have foreseen or averted,” he says. There were hints and people who warned early on. The disturbing thing about the Wirecard case is that all of this could have happened with the eyes of sight and under the inspectors’ radar.

BaFin seal of approval?

The central accusation of the opposition: The Federal Financial Services Agency (BaFin) did not investigate early indications of possible irregularities at Wirecard. Instead, according to experts, the authority made fatal misjudgments.

BaFin was convinced that Wirecard was being blackmailed. That is why the authorities imposed a ban on the short sale of Wirecard shares in February 2019. BaFin had never before issued such a speculation ban with a single share. Many market participants understood this signal as a kind of seal of approval: You can trust Wirecard, the company is clean!

Many small investors then got on board. When the rumors that had been circulating for years about inflated balance sheets at Wirecard turned out to be true in June 2020, the share price plummeted. Wirecard was broke. Many small investors lost everything.

The minister and the chancellor had to testify

Since then, the public prosecutor has been investigating, among other things, gang fraud. Former board members were arrested and one of them, Jan Marsalek, is still on the run to this day. Because the control authorities are subordinate to ministries, the opposition’s criticism was directed at the government, says Lisa Paus, who sits on the committee of inquiry for the Greens. “Wirecard was also an auditor scandal. The supervision was under the economics minister Peter Altmaier,” says Paus. Above all, Wirecard is a broad supervisory scandal overall. “The financial supervision was under the SPD finance minister Olaf Scholz.”

Ministers Scholz and Altmaier had to testify in the committee of inquiry. Chancellor Angela Merkel was also questioned for hours. None of them admitted mistakes. On the other hand, the work of the investigative committee certainly increased the pressure on the Federal Finance Minister to completely reform the financial supervisory authority BaFin, which is subordinate to him, including a change at the top of BaFin.

Bankers lost their reputations

Financial expert Fabio De Masi from the Left Party is certain that the results of the committee of inquiry are not only politically interesting: “The auditors’ mistakes will play a role in class actions by small investors,” he says. Never before have so many heads rolled at the head of authorities in such a short time.

Authority managers, bankers, analysts, fund managers and BaFin employees – they lost their jobs, their bonuses, their reputation. These are the first concrete effects of the committee of inquiry into the Wirecard scandal. The witness chair on the investigative committee was therefore soon more feared by some than the dock in a criminal court

Committee of Inquiry Wirecard and the “Mastercard” from Commerzbank

As of: 06/09/2021 3:01 a.m.

The parliamentary groups’ final reports on the Wirecard committee of inquiry are almost ready. Nevertheless, the panel heard witnesses well into the night. It was about early information from Commerzbank. By Arne Meyer-Fünffinger and Josef Streule, BR When the Munich Chief Public Prosecutor Hildegard Bäumler-Hösl entered the “Europa Hall” in the Paul-Löbe-Haus, the Wirecard investigative committee had already spent almost nine hours of intensive witness questioning behind it. At this point in time, the committee had already questioned the head of the FIU anti-money laundering unit, Christof Schulte, and the State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Rolf Bösinger – with unsurprising results. Both vigorously defended the work of the authority in connection with the Wirecard scandal. “We have no indications that the FIU would not have fulfilled its legal mandate,” emphasized Bösinger. The FIU has been standing for reporting from BR research for days again more and more criticized. In February 2019, Commerzbank submitted a detailed suspicious transaction report to the FIU – including a list of almost 350 suspicious transfers and a short report to make the FIU’s work easier. A reference to the allegations made against former Wirecard managers was not recognizable, explained Schulte and Bösinger. The FIU therefore only forwarded this suspicious activity report to the responsible criminal investigation authorities in Bavaria in July 2020, after seven foreign partner authorities had been sent “spontaneous information” in July 2019. Schulte emphasized that there has been no response from them to this day. And apart from that: “The Commerzbank report was by our standards not a particularly good report,” said the FIU boss.

Prosecutor: Commerzbank report was the “Mastercard”

The Munich public prosecutor’s witness, Chief Public Prosecutor Bäumler-Hösl, arranged the Commerzbank report completely differently when she was interrogated: “The major money laundering report from Commerzbank is the Mastercard. This is the most valuable and most extensive money laundering report. It is elementary. ” “That’s a statement,” said the committee chairman Kay Gottschalk (AfD) spontaneously. The lawyer also contradicted Bösinger and Schulte on a central point: Both had emphasized that Commerzbank’s suspicious transaction report had no reference to the German legal area. That is why the FIU did not forward this to the local authorities any faster. “What alarmed me about the report is the presentation of the facts by Commerzbank,” she said. This refers to the brief report that the bank added to the list of nearly 350 suspicious payments. In this and in the transfers listed by the Frankfurt money house, a relationship with Germany was clearly recognizable, Bäumler-Hösl made clear. With the fact that the report did not contain any reference to Germany, the FIU justified the fact that it had only informed the local authorities of this information more than a year and a half later. “All the reasons given by the Federal Ministry of Finance as to why the FIU did not initially have to pass on the suspicious transaction report have literally collapsed,” commented Florian Toncar (FDP) on the statement by the chief public prosecutor.

Wirecard suspicious activity report on a silver platter

Matthias Hauer (CDU / CSU) had already disagreed with the presentation of the FIU representative before the chief public prosecutor’s statement: “In my opinion, the silver platter is not enough, it must be made of gold.” Other experts had also classified the suspicious activity report from Commerzbank in the run-up to today’s testimony as a “silver platter” on which the bank had served the FIU with its information. The third witness in the Wirecard investigative committee, Rolf Bösinger, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, countered the accusation that he had withheld information from parliament at an earlier point in time: “These accusations are untenable. I have neither withheld information nor do I have it There is nothing to hide or to conceal. We have informed the German Bundestag and the MPs comprehensively, “he said.

Accusation of “concealment”

These statements did not make an impression on every committee member. For Lisa Paus (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen) they were “not credible”, Hans Michelbach (CDU / CSU) spoke of “veiling” by the ministry even after Bösinger had been questioned for several hours. BR research had previously reported on internal mail correspondence of the FIU, according to which Bösinger is said to have influenced a dossier of the FIU accordingly. This was drawn up by the authority on the occasion of a special meeting of the finance committee on August 31, 2020. The dossier was an internal preparatory document, stressed Bösinger in front of the members of the committee of inquiry. They will now focus on completing their final reports after months of work. Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble will probably receive a thick pile of papers at the end of this month.

Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has rejected complicity in the multi-billion Wirecard scandal. The former top management of the payment processor is being investigated. “Apparently there was a high level of criminal activity in the company,” said the SPD candidate for chancellor in the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the financial scandal. The auditor EY had not uncovered the errors for eleven years and always audited the balance sheets. This has been believed for too long. The federal government is not to blame for the case. Scholz said that it was acted quickly and that the right conclusions had been drawn: “I got all that on the way quickly.”

Government supervision not good enough

Scholz rejected allegations that the financial supervisory authority BaFin or the Ministry of Finance had held their protective hand over the company. He admitted, however, that the state supervisory and control structure was not well enough equipped for such an attack. It is important to learn from this – also because many investors have been deceived and lost large sums of money.

Keeping auditors on a leash

BaFin, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Finance, is being reorganized and should be given significantly more powers. In addition, the auditors should be kept on a leash. The aim is to restore confidence. The former Dax group went bankrupt in June 2020 after billions in air bookings became known. The Munich public prosecutor’s office is investigating balance sheet falsification, fraud, market manipulation and money laundering. Several ex-Wirecard board members are in custody or on the run. The BaFin and thus also the Ministry of Finance are accused of extensive failure in the case.

From Alfred Schmit, ARD capital studio The distance rules could get tricky outside the committee of inquiry this week. Because big names always attract whole groups of observers, and financial media are added to the capital city press when it comes to Wirecard. It was the same when ex-Federal Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg came – however, the hearing about his lobbying work produced a result with little substance. This should not be repeated.

What did Altmaier know?

From today’s survey by Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier, the MPs hope to gain clarification about accounting auditing firms such as KPMG – and above all about EY, formerly known as Ernst & Young. You looked in the books at Wirecard – and Altmaier is politically responsible for overseeing these companies. The main questions for him: Why did it only become apparent so late that Wirecard’s balance sheets were wrong? And how can this be prevented from happening again. Danyal Bayaz, for the Greens in the committee, used to work for a consulting firm and thinks: In the Wirecard case, the balance sheet check clearly failed. The business location is battered, the damage to the image is great. “The Federal Minister of Economics has to touch his nose: where has his authority not been working properly?”, Says Bayaz. After the questioning of the Federal Minister of Economics, it is the turn of the digital representative of the Chancellery, Dorothee Bär. What did she know about the nested tech company’s business? Wednesday will be the silent star of the celebrity week at the Wirecard investigation committee: Here come Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht and Finance State Secretary Jörg Kukies – he has to listen to allegations of oversleeping the reform of the German financial supervisory authority BaFin.

Spotlight on Scholz

When Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and the Chancellor arrive on Thursday and Friday, many spotlights will be on them. SPD chairman Jens Zimmermann believes, however, that no matter how great the attention may be, the knowledge could be so little. There will be great disappointment when the chancellor and the finance minister are questioned, he says. “Neither of them will be able to contribute much to the clarification because they were hardly concerned with these topics personally.” Big wave, little content: the risk is there. However, the results of the committee of inquiry so far are absolutely impressive: Minister Scholz felt compelled to submit a draft law for more financial market security. Leading minds in German financial supervision were called to account. Some lost their jobs because the committee’s educational work revealed that they had misconduct. In addition, the financial supervisory authority BaFin is getting a reform that has not yet been completed. In any case, celebrity week brings with it one thing: more attention to how this 22 billion euro bankruptcy has lost many investors’ money.

By Arne Meyer-Fünffinger and Josef Streule, BR At the end of March 2014, the mood between Wirecard and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) was dazzling. Wirecard Bank AG, which belongs to the group, has just solved a problem for the BKA – in connection with an account that the bank set up on behalf of the authority. “I would like to thank you expressly and cordially, in particular ‘that’ and ‘how quickly’ you were able to implement the whole thing,” wrote an employee of the BKA department “Serious and Organized Crime” by email to the general manager at the time the Wirecard Bank.

Wirecard: “We will become the BKA house bank”

The latter forwards the BKA thank you email to a board of directors on the same day. In addition, he writes, “We have 2 more BKA accounts”. The board of directors replied immediately and with great satisfaction: “Great – thank you very much! We will become the BKA house bank.” The e-mails are part of an extensive data set of internal Wirecard documents, the BR research could see. It shows: The BKA has maintained a close cooperation with the now insolvent payment service provider for years.

The special investigator Wieland is sharply critical of the BKA’s actions. Image: picture alliance / dpa / dpa-Zentral The former Green Bundestag member and interior expert Wolfgang Wieland took a closer look at the cooperation in his function as investigative officer for the Wirecard investigative committee. In the previously unpublished paper that BR research is available, he comes to the conclusion, among other things, that the BKA must put up with the question of whether it should not have “as an authority to combat money laundering and organized crime should have examined its partners more critically”. Instead, the BKA “made the buck to the gardener,” writes Wieland.

Wirecard issued credit cards for the BKA

The Federal Criminal Police Office chose Wirecard Bank to use credit cards to monitor suspects. In February 2014, for example, a BKA official approached the management of Wirecard Bank with the following request: “We would like to give a target person an originally sealed mywirecard VISA as a ‘gift’ so that they can use the card diligently. […] As soon as the card on surveillance is used, a corresponding data record with the information is sent directly to the law enforcement agency. “Since the target person is very suspicious, this card must be handed over to her in its original packaging.

Trusted exchange for years

At the BKA, the trust in the company is apparently so great that the authority inaugurates Wirecard in search concepts. In January 2014 she sent a fax to those responsible at the bank. The BKA investigators want to explain the “E-Cash” search concept to Wirecard: “For this purpose, we have already agreed business processes with various headends and companies (…). From our point of view, it would be a good idea to discuss this matter with you (gladly at your house) to explain in more detail. ”

Good and uncomplicated cooperation

At the same time, Wirecard always tried to make the BKA’s work as easy and inexpensive as possible. The company reimbursed the authority for any account management fees or credit card usage fees that were normally incurred. A board member of Wirecard Bank is pleased that Wirecard managers were able to gain insight into account movements from undercover investigations. He wants to be informed about account balances, “then at least I can see what’s going on on the account,” he wrote in an email in June 2014. Danyal Bayaz, Member of the Bundestag for the Greens and member of the Wirecard investigation committee, is critical of the cooperation: “At a scandalous company like Wirecard, where a board member himself had contacts to Russia, Libya or former security officials from Austria, who knows what with this data happened, and of course that’s a huge problem. ”

Cooperation with the BKA as “image polish”

According to the report by investigative officer Wieland, the group’s cooperation with the BKA “came as it was called” – “in the image polishing away from porn and gaming financiers to serious partners in politics and in particular actors from the security sector”. The cooperation is apparently practical for the BKA. Shortly before Christmas 2015, the authority thanked Wirecard: “We look forward to continued good cooperation in 2016 too.” And it runs for years. According to Wieland’s assessment, in the area of ​​operational management alone, BKA confidants “in the period from 2014-2020 made about 33% of all operational credit card sales with Wirecard”. The business conduct of Wirecard has long been the subject of criticism, and since 2015 there have been investigations against Wirecard officials on the grounds of “suspicion of money laundering” or “aiding in unauthorized gambling”. For Thomas Feltes, long-time professor of criminology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, it is incomprehensible that the BKA has cooperated with Wirecard for so long: “At the latest from a certain point in time when the BKA knew or could have known that Wirecard did not have everything If things are done right, you should have pulled the rip cord. ”

The federal government is keeping silent about the BKA cooperation

In retrospect, this close relationship between the BKA and Wirecard appears to be uncomfortable for the federal government. This is at least the impression made by the internal communication between the Chancellery and several ministries shortly after the Wirecard collapse in June 2020. At that time, the Green parliamentary group submitted a comprehensive catalog of questions to the federal government. In it, she wants to know, among other things, whether Wirecard AG or one of its subsidiaries “advised, supported or otherwise worked with the authorities”. The Federal Chancellery then asks the individual departments to deliver. The Federal Ministry of the Interior, as the BKA supervisory authority, reports to the Chancellery about the cooperation between the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Wirecard Bank. But the experts in the Chancellery come to the conclusion that “the mere use of bank accounts or credit cards” does not involve any cooperation with Wirecard “in the sense of the question”. And so the answer sent on August 10, 2020 is: “The Federal Government is not aware of any collaborations.” The Green politician Bayaz calls for a comprehensive clarification of this process: “If we know today that German security authorities have used credit cards via Wirecard, for example, the question naturally arises, have any possible security interests of the Federal Republic of Germany been violated? This is a highly explosive process. And now all the cards have to be on the table. ” Neither the Federal Criminal Police Office nor the Federal Ministry of the Interior wanted to comment on the incident. The Chancellery referred to the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The Wirecard investigation committee of the Bundestag will deal with the report of the investigative commissioner Wieland on Thursday.

By Marilina Görz y Moratalla, SWR, and Jan-Philipp Hein The counter-espionage of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is said to have so far found no evidence that the fugitive former Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek was tied to Russian intelligence services. However, the search continues. That writes the special investigator of the Wirecard investigation committee, the former Berlin Justice Senator Wolfgang Wieland (Greens), in his investigation report, the SWR is present. At the end of November, the committee of inquiry commissioned Wieland to deal specifically with the contacts of the former DAX group with secret services. In his report, Wieland also mentions that Marsalek’s colleague on the board, Susanne Steidl, reported to the Munich public prosecutor that Marsalek had “requested and received a complete annual data set of Wirecard business partners to be forwarded to the BND”. The Wieland paper does not reveal what kind of data it was about. But: The BND excludes “verifiably” from ever having received it. For Wieland, therefore, the question arises who received it instead.

The special investigator Wieland does not feel adequately informed by the federal government. Image: picture alliance / dpa / dpa-Zentral A spokesman for Steidl says this SWR– Inquiry: “The BND was a customer like many others.” Therefore, the process from summer 2019 was not unusual. It was also anonymous data, such as can be bought from other service providers. To this day, Steidl does not know what Marsalek did with the data.

“Ignorance of the intelligence services”

Shortly after the collapse of the then DAX group in the early summer of last year – this is also shown by documents supporting the SWR are available – the Federal Chancellery and various security authorities began investigating Wirecard and the fleeting top manager Marsalek after inquiries from the press and parliament. Shortly after his disappearance, he was said to have had close relationships with Russian secret services. But neither the BND nor the Office for the Protection of the Constitution want Marsalek and Wirecard to be on their radar. “As a result, the ignorance of the intelligence services was confirmed by June 2020,” writes Wieland. The fact that Marsalek is repeatedly associated with Russia is due to the fact that he pursued a large number of projects and businesses there and traveled there very often. In 2017 and 2018 he also tried to start a project in Libya together with a professor of Arabic studies from Moscow, a high-ranking officer in the Austrian Armed Forces and a German refugee expert. In addition, his escape with a private jet via Belarusian Minsk is said to have finally led him to Russia itself. The secret service expert and historian Wolfgang Krieger from the Philipps University in Marburg says: “Jan Marsalek does not get protection from Russia for free. It is very likely that he received protection for financial espionage.”

Wirecard worked together with the BKA

Several units of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) worked together with the later scandal group, whose bankruptcy has grown into one of the largest criminal cases in German history. From 2013, online criminals were to be convicted with the help of the Group’s own Wirecard bank. The bank also made credit cards available for this purpose. Later, the BKA turned to the group “in order to obtain information about the whereabouts of known or unknown perpetrators in real time when developing new search approaches with the help of data from credit cards,” Wieland writes in his report. For Wieland, the fact that the report leaves many questions unanswered in spite of everything is also due to the lack of cooperation and willingness to provide information on the part of the federal government and the Bavarian state government. Information is blocked to this day due to ongoing criminal investigations. The Bavarian Ministry of Justice did not even send confirmations of receipt in response to inquiries. The SPD MP Jens Zimmermann from the Wirecard committee also criticizes this: “The fact that the Bavarian Ministry of Justice did not respond to the request for support from the investigative committee’s special investigator casts a bad but telling picture of the lack of willingness to provide information in Bavaria.”

Ex-top secret service agent in front of the committee

Wieland will present an expanded version of his report to the committee of inquiry on Thursday morning. Immediately afterwards, two former intelligence coordinators from the Chancellery have to testify before the committee. Klaus-Dieter Fritsche, who was responsible for the secret services at the government headquarters from 2014 to 2018, signed a consulting contract with Wirecard in 2019. Until 2020, Fritsche lobbied for the group at its old place of work. In 2019, a department head of the Chancellery met a Wirecard board member. According to Fritsche, Bernd Schmidbauer, who worked under Helmut Kohl in the Chancellery from 1991 to 1998, must testify. Schmidbauer admitted in February that he had met Marsalek about two years ago in his Munich property. In addition, Schmidbauer was in contact for years with one of Marsalek’s escape helpers, a former chief constitutional protection officer from Austria. The FDP chairman Florian Toncar has high hopes for the interrogations of the two ex-top secret service agents. The whole complex around Wirecard and the intelligence services has been “underexposed” so far, says Toncar. It is “worrying” that foreign intelligence services apparently got involved with Wirecard. Toncar calls the fact that the company was used as a “money laundering machine” for the interests of the Russian government or to pay mercenaries in Libya or Syria or to circumvent sanctions, “says Toncar,” hypotheses that the facts point to. ” Addition from April 14th, 2021: According to its own account, the Bavarian Ministry of Justice “transmitted” the information requested by the investigative officer Wieland. These were received by him today at noon. Confirmations of receipt, according to a spokeswoman, “are generally not sent by the Bavarian Ministry of Justice”. Therefore, the allegations made against the Bavarian government are incorrect.