As of: January 29, 2024, 9:00 p.m
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The case was heard at the district court in Weilheim (symbolic photo).
© dpa
In a strange way, money had ended up in a Raistinger's account, which strengthened the suspicion of money laundering.
However, he stated before the Weilheim district court that he had been cheated himself.
Raising -
The 75-year-old defendant is said to have passed on just over 4,400 euros of criminal origin abroad in recent years and has therefore committed a criminal offense as a "financial agent", according to the public prosecutor's office.
The story began a few years ago, explained the Raistinger and stated that he started trading cryptocurrencies in 2019 “for fun”.
At first he only deposited 250 euros.
In the event of a negative transaction, this sum would still be easy to absorb, he described his thought process.
His 250 euros turned into more: thousands of euros
Contrary to his fears, the good news soon reached him - his 250 euros had become more, significantly more, thousands of euros.
According to Raistinger, the joy didn't last long.
He was sure at the time that he had no access to the winnings he had made and had obviously “wasted” the 250 euros.
Soon afterwards, however, he was contacted by an unknown person who surprisingly promised him that his winnings would be paid out.
However, he was told that he would only be able to access his profit through a one-off payment of 2,400 euros.
Since he didn't want to give up his big win under any circumstances, he complied with the demand.
Criminals demand large sums of money
However, things didn't stop there.
He should then have taken out insurance for 3,000 euros.
When this seemed too strange to him, the next step was to transfer him to another contact person.
During a constant back and forth, during which he regularly transferred larger and smaller amounts of money, he finally put an end to the shady process himself.
He was told that the amounts were processing fees that would supposedly benefit the employees of his contact person, with whom he had been in contact by telephone and email.
It didn't take long for a letter from the criminal police to arrive.
“With 250 euros, I wouldn’t have thought about money laundering in 100 years,” the defendant asserted.
“Someone owes them something and they have to pay an amount to get their own money?” the prosecutor summarized it with a frown and asked how such an operation could be considered legitimate.
“I've never had anything to do with anything like that before,” the man replied, he was just trying to get the money.
Prosecutor amazed by investigation files
To the public prosecutor's astonishment, the injured parties hardly appeared in the investigation files.
It would certainly make a lot of sense to hear them if you wanted to avoid endless “poking around in the dark,” he assumed.
A police officer then explained that an interrogation usually only takes place if the injured person also files a complaint.
Especially in money laundering proceedings, the number of possible victims is often very large and sometimes simply “unmanageable,” she said.
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With regard to the numerous “processing fees” that were transferred, it was probably the money of the victims, who had sometimes fallen for similar fraud schemes as the Raistinger himself.
In the midst of the lively debate, the public prosecutor suddenly announced that he would demand a discontinuation of the proceedings - in return for a fine of 500 euros.
A complete clarification would involve “disproportionate effort”.
The Raistinger had previously emphasized several times that he had received a copy of his contact person's ID upon request.
The man on the ID definitely exists, “but he has nothing to do with it,” the prosecutor suspected.
The criminals certainly “took the document from somewhere.”
There could be a large network behind it, in which “even the recipients of the money are not yet the perpetrators,” he feared.
The court accepted his proposal.
“Keep your fingers away,” said Judge Isabelle von Heydebrand, urging caution in the future.
Florian Zerhoch