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Schloss Nonnenwerth: House searches for fraud "in a particularly serious case"

2022-03-23T16:11:21.078Z


The traditional grammar school Schloss Nonnenwerth is to be closed – the American investor had promised to keep it. Now the public prosecutor is investigating.


Enlarge image

The grammar school Schloss Nonnenwerth is picturesquely situated on an island in the Rhine

Photo: Thomas Frey / picture alliance / dpa

The drama about the future of the former monastery school Schloss Nonnenwerth enters the next round.

The US investor Peter Soliman bought the private school, which is located on an island in the Rhine on the border of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, from a Franciscan order in early 2020 in order to expand it and "bring it to new splendor". as he said at the time.

Soliman has been running the private International School on the Rhine in Neuss for many years.

But less than two years later, the school is on the brink of closure, and the investor has announced that it will close at the end of this school year.

The Koblenz public prosecutor's office has now started investigations: around 40 police officers and four members of the public prosecutor's office searched a total of 13 properties in northern Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia on Wednesday.

In two cases, the initial suspicion of fraud in a particularly serious case was investigated, as the public prosecutor confirmed.

Large parts of the parents and teachers see themselves deceived and assume that Soliman did not intend to keep the school from the start.

The investor denies this.

A fire protection report has shown that investments in the millions are necessary to operate the school in accordance with the current safety standards.

He couldn't bear the high costs.

»Schulwerk« filed a criminal complaint

The association "Schulwerk des Gymnasiums Nonnenwerth" and one parent had filed a criminal complaint - among other things, because Soliman is said to have persuaded the association to donate to the upkeep of the school in the upper six-digit range, according to the public prosecutor's office, without submitting evidence of the use of the funds.

The public prosecutor's office in Koblenz has now initiated investigations.

The officials were primarily looking for "chat and e-mail communication on mobile devices and computer systems that provide information about agreements on the purchase, purpose of use and continued existence of the island of Nonnenwerth and the grammar school on it", as well as for "documents regarding the use and the whereabouts of the donations for earmarked financing of school operations.« This is what the search warrant, which SPIEGEL has seen, says.

The public prosecutor's office is now evaluating the evidence that was secured during the searches.

However, initial findings indicated that there had been no legally binding promise to the sellers that the school would continue.

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2022-03-23

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