Raid in Scholz's ministry: scandal threatens special unit - "lies that the bars are bending"

Is the next scandal threatening SPD chancellor candidate and vice chancellor Olaf Scholz?

After a raid on the Ministry of Finance, there is criticism of the minister and the customs special unit.

Berlin - After Wirecard and Cum-Ex, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz could threaten the next scandal shortly before the election: On Thursday (September 9th) the Osnabrück public prosecutor searched the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin. A lack of controls by the Treasury Department could be responsible for the fact that a special unit of customs withheld information about money laundering from the police.

For the election campaign of SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, it was not a good sign that the public prosecutor's office searched his ministry on Thursday.

Employees of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a special unit of the customs against money laundering, are now being investigated because they should not have forwarded dozens of suspicious transaction reports to the police.

The special unit is subordinate to the Scholz Ministry of Finance with customs.

This is now held responsible for the failure of the unit.

Scandal in the Treasury?

Customs special unit dropped dozens of advertisements under the table

According to information from the AFP news agency, the Osnabrück public prosecutor's office has been conducting an investigation for a long time on suspicion of fraudulent activity at the FIU. During searches in the Federal Customs Administration, documents were secured that revealed information about "extensive communication" between the FIU and the two federal ministries. It is now to be examined whether the management or those responsible for the ministries were involved in the decisions of the FUI.

The FIU has been subordinate to the Ministry of Finance since 2017, after switching from the Federal Criminal Police Office to Customs.

Since then, the criticism of the special unit has also grown: the officers are too slow, communications are often incorrect.

Last year, a customs spokesman told

Focus

that there was progress in the section: The staff had been increased and financial investigators had been given extended access to police databases in order to facilitate work processes.

"This will help to further improve the work of the FIU," the spokesman was quoted as saying.

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After a raid on the Ministry of Finance, Olaf Scholz and the customs special unit FIU have come under fire: they have "glossed over the failure".

(Archive image)

© Bildgehege via www.imago-images.de

Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter on FIU: "They lie that the bars bend"

The head of the Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter (BDK), Sebastian Fiedler, sees it differently: "The people at the FIU lie that the bars are bending," he told

Focus

.

The representatives of the FIU had already "glossed over their failure" at several hearings in the Bundestag or in the finance committee in North Rhine-Westphalia.

As the detective explains, in recent years many cases have been reported to the police too late or not at all.

One reason for this is not enough staff.

This was also the case, for example, with the Wirecard scandal or fraudsters with Corona emergency aid.

"Style flowers were created here every week," says Fiedler of the FIU's communication with the federal ministries.

From the ranks of the opposition and the CDU, Finance Minister Scholz was made responsible for the chaos in the special unit.

The investigation is also about the question "why the number of suspicious transaction reports has fallen to a fraction since the FIU took over the money laundering control," said the public prosecutor in a statement.

According to information from

Focus

, the number of reports on money laundering in 2020 was 140,000 - in the previous year there were only 115,000.

The number of cases decreased compared to the previous year by only 10,000 to 24,000 cases.

List of rubric lists: © Axel Heimken / dpa