German Finance Minister Christian Lindner is under investigation on suspicion of corruption, reports the daily “Tagesspiegel”. The leader of the country’s co-ruling FDP party is suspected of taking bribes from a private bank in Karlsruhe which had granted him loans for purchasing a villa in Berlin.
The Berlin general prosecutor’s office is considering revoking Lindner’s parliamentary immunity in order to conduct a formal investigation into these accusations, which Lindner denies.
In May 2022, the FDP leader had taken part in recording formal greetings for BBBank, on the institution’s jubilee. The greetings were a result of the politician’s official formal function of Finance Minister, but he concealed the fact that he had taken a loan from this particular bank to purchase a private house. After the recording, he had taken another loan from the same bank for which he is now facing criminal proceedings in relation to corruption.
The “Spiegel” weekly revealed that Lindner had purchased a two-family house in Berlin’s Nikolassee residential district for EUR 1.65 million in January 2021. He took a loan from BBBank, and then was later giving lectures for the bank, which was also paying him the fees for this activity. Later, Lindner registered an unusually high land debt of EUR 2.35 million in order to secure the loan.
At the beginning of July 2022, after recording the message for BBBank, Lindner again borrowed money from this same institution for another mortgage, this time a loan of EUR 450,000.
“Mr Lindner has been taking loans for private real estate investments long before he took office,” his lawyer Christian Schertz said. He added that the terms of all contracts were “in line with market regulations.”
Lindner’s lawyer appeals that “brief greetings on anniversaries such as the bank’s jubilee is part of the regular minister’s conduct.”
source:
TVP Info
