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Peter Feldmann (December 2022)

Photo: Michael Schick / IMAGO

The former partner of Frankfurt's ex-mayor Peter Feldmann has been convicted of aiding and abetting embezzlement. The defense and the prosecution have withdrawn the appeal against the district court's ruling, a spokesman for the district court said on Thursday. Previously, the »Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung« had reported.

The local court had sentenced the then 37-year-old to a fine of 3300 euros for aiding and abetting embezzlement - calculated from 110 daily rates of 30 euros. According to the district court, 10,800 euros, which she had wrongly collected, were also to be confiscated. Following the withdrawal of the appeal, this judgment is now final.

The district court saw it as proven that Feldmann's former partner had pursued a bogus mini-job at the Workers' Welfare Association (Awo) in the Wiesbaden district association. Accordingly, between November 2014 and April 2017, she was only employed there as a "caregiver" for the sake of appearance. Although, according to the court, she did not perform any work, she earned 13,500 euros. This would constitute aiding and abetting embezzlement.

The verdict against the mayor of Frankfurt, who was voted out of office, for accepting an advantage is now also legally binding. The Federal Court of Justice had dismissed the appeal. Feldmann had been sentenced to a fine of 120 daily rates of 175 euros in a corruption trial.

Here, too, the background was the former SPD politician's close ties to the Workers' Welfare Association (Awo). The politician had always denied being corrupt. Feldmann had been voted out of office by a referendum on 6 November – also as a consequence of the indictment and the trial.

The proceedings against the politician were in the context of the scandal over allegations of fraud in the millions at the Awo district associations in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden (read more about it here). Reports about the former management position of Feldmann's partner at the time had also set the affair rolling in 2019.

jpz/dpa