The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Scholz dodges in the Bundestag the reproaches about his management in the fight against money laundering

2021-09-20T18:27:41.398Z


The minister appears to justify the decisions of his department before the investigation opened by the German Public Prosecutor's Office a few days before the elections


The German Finance Minister and candidate for Chancellor of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Olaf Scholz, appeared on Monday before the Bundestag Finance Commission to defend himself against the accusations against the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a body that depends on his department and that it is being investigated by the German Prosecutor's Office on suspicion that it did not act correctly to prevent a suspicious millionaire transfer to an African country. The investigation, just days before Sunday's elections in which the Social Democrat leads the polls, has aroused suspicion within the party, which suspects that they could respond to a campaign encouraged from the CDU by Chancellor Angela Merkel to erode the Scholz image.

The Osnabrück Prosecutor's Office carried out searches in the Ministries of Finance and Justice on September 9 and days later the appearance of Scholz was requested in the German Parliament. The deputies expected the minister's statement to be made by videoconference, due to his busy schedule in the final stretch of the electoral campaign, but Scholz appeared in person before the thirty members that make up the commission. At the special session, held at the behest of the Liberal party (FDP), the Greens and the Die Linke left, Scholz rejected the accusations against the anti-money laundering unit and noted that the volume of reports in the FIU had been tripled since its inception and expected to "double again in no time." "Thus,It is important that the IT structure [of the unit] is expanded and that we have a sufficiently good staff structure, ”he said.

The investigation of the Osnabrück Public Prosecutor's Office, led by Bernard Südbeck, an active CDU activist, aroused the suspicions of the SPD, due to the sudden request made by the public prosecutor to be able to carry out the search of the two Ministries, which was approved on August 25 by Phillip Brauch.

The possibility that the Ministry of Finance could be covering up the bad practices of the Financial Intelligence Unit, a body created by the former Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schäuble, were used by the CDU candidate, Armin Laschet, to accuse his opponent of “negligence” in his work as minister and also suggest that Scholz could be covering up the mismanagement of the FIU.

More information

  • A financial scandal corners Scholz a few days before the German elections

  • Scholz strengthens his chances of ruling Germany after the last electoral debate

The minister said that there was a constant improvement of the procedure to analyze all the complaints that arrive to prevent criminal activities from going unnoticed.

"When I took over as minister in 2018 all these tasks were still to be done," he said.

Scholz explained that, under his direction, the Unit had grown from 150 to 500 employees, now it had a modern IT structure and the number of reports is increasing.

He also assured that the criteria for transmitting reports on money laundering to the authorities are being improved.

The ministry that Scholz runs was already criticized last year for neglecting its vigilance in the bankruptcy of the Wirecard company, the biggest financial scandal since the war in Germany.

This online payment company recognized in June 2020 that 1.9 billion registered in its accounts simply did not exist, forcing the minister to answer incisive questions from deputies during a special commission of inquiry.

Join EL PAÍS now to follow all the news and read without limits

Subscribe here

The starting point of the investigation, which began in 2020, was the "declaration of suspicious activities by a bank (...) regarding payments to Africa for an amount exceeding one million euros." The Central Office for Investigation of Financial Transactions (FIU) did not transmit this report to the judicial authorities, which prevented "ceasing these payments," according to the Prosecutor's Office. This transaction "had as a backdrop the trafficking of arms and drugs, as well as the financing of terrorism," the bank noted in its report. The Prosecutor's Office asked to register the Ministries of Finance and Justice to verify "to what extent the management and those responsible for both Ministries were involved in the decisions of the FIU." It was not until September 9 when the Prosecutor's Office decided to raid the Ministries.

In his appearance, Scholz assured that his Ministry had "continuously improved" in recent years the fight against financial crime, listing the efforts made by the Government.

"But no minister can solve problems by snapping his fingers," he told MPs,

The representatives of the opposition, but also the conservatives of the CDU / CSU, coalition partners in the Government, had accused the minister, before the start of the session, of serious failures in the management of the Ministry he has occupied since 2018. The deputy Liberal Florian Toncar, for example, said he considered Scholz responsible for a "lawless zone in the fight against organized crime."

Laschet shakes the specter of the economic crisis with the SPD

With the elections to the Chancellery next Sunday on the horizon, the CDU candidate, Armin Laschet, appealed to the liberals of the FDP to prevent the threat that in his opinion looms over Germany if the elections result in a alliance of the SPD, The Greens and Die Linke to govern the country for the next four years.



The conservative candidate appealed to the pockets of voters to try to attract the vote of the undecided by ensuring that a left-wing government in Germany "would cause a serious economic crisis" in the country. It is almost the last cartridge in Laschet's chamber after his Social Democratic rival, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, won the third and final debate of the election campaign on Sunday.



Laschet assured that the SPD and the Greens are seeking an alliance with the Die Linke left, a danger that only the FDP could prevent. The conservative appealed to the liberals not to put too many obstacles to the possibility of a coalition with the CDU / CSU. "Otherwise, only red-red-green remains," he said at a press conference held at the party's headquarters in Berlin, alluding to the colors of the left-wing formations.



After a meeting with the party leadership, Laschet ventured to forecast the results of Sunday's elections and possible alliances. “Although the SPD comes in second place, it is capable of forming a red-red-green alliance, depending on the election results. We are doing everything possible to be in the first place and that this alliance does not take place ”, he assured.



The members of that alliance "have other ideas about economic and financial policy that would lead Germany to a serious economic crisis if they were put into practice," Laschet stressed. Throughout the campaign, Scholz has repeatedly distanced himself from Die Linke but has not completely ruled out forming a coalition with the left-wing formation and with Los Verdes.



The truth is that Laschet's message of "firmness" does not seem to have permeated voters, concerned about climate change, immigration and the coronavirus pandemic.

An INSA poll for the Bild places the SPD at 25% of support and the conservative bloc of the CDU / CSU at 22%.


Follow all the international information on

Facebook

and

Twitter

, or in

our weekly newsletter

.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-09-20

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-06T22:55:40.006Z
Life/Entertain 2024-01-30T10:18:45.920Z
Life/Entertain 2024-01-30T15:31:23.897Z
News/Politics 2024-02-22T20:31:31.460Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.