In the scandal surrounding the insolvency of the Greensill Bank, in which the city of Schwalbach lost 19 million euros, the opposition of the Greens, FDP and Free Voters yesterday presented an interim report to the file inspection committee.

After five meetings, the city councils see their assessment confirmed that Mayor Alexander Immisch (SPD) has been untruthful about his ignorance of the city's investment guidelines.

For city councilor Arnold Bernhardt (Greens), it is clear from the municipal submissions, which were signed by Immisch, that he was familiar with the investment guidelines from February 2019.

Heike Lattka

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Main-Taunus-Kreis.

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According to this, as reported, city money was only allowed to take place at Raiffeisen banks, Volksbanks and savings banks since the deposit protection at private banks was discontinued.

With the investment at Bremer Privatbank Greensill, Immisch violated this principle practiced by his predecessor Christiane Augsburger (SPD) almost as soon as he took office in June 2020.

"All the alarm bells should have been ringing for him"

According to Bernhardt, the new mayor was aware of the city council's resolution on the investment guidelines, as he himself referred to this resolution in several documents he had signed. As an example, Bernhardt cited the reasons for the municipal submission "M 200", which mentions the municipal resolution in the annex. Reference is also made to this investment guideline in report “B 0067”. Both documents were signed by Immisch, and one could assume that he reads what he signed, said Bernhardt. In contrast, Immisch had asserted, as reported, that the finance department had not informed them of the investment guidelines. An employee had received a warning from him because of this failure.

When Immisch took office, deposit security no longer had a priority, said the FDP parliamentary group leader Stephanie Müller. In contrast to his predecessor, he has significantly expanded the group of credit institutions. One of the first official acts of the new mayor was the opening of an account with Greensill Bank, although according to the documents of the investment brokers it was expressly stated in an email that Greensill is a private bank and therefore there is no deposit security and no liability is assumed become. "At the latest, all the alarm bells should have been ringing for him," said the Green parliamentary group leader Barbara Blaschek-Bernhardt. She reportedhow she was informed about the loss of millions by the mayor shortly before the local elections as one of the group leaders. According to his own admission, he told his administration that “you can invest anywhere, except at a Turkish bank,” said Blaschek-Bernhardt.

Presumption of innocence and demand for resignation

This statement underlines his careless handling of the matter.

She also criticized the time lag of one week each until Immisch first made the loss of millions and later the public prosecutor's search of the town hall public.

The Greens, FDP and Free Voters fear a lack of transparency for the final report of the file inspection committee.

Katja Lindenau (Greens) complained that the minutes of the meetings were already incorrectly or incompletely reproduced despite tape recordings.

The SPD parliamentary group chairman, Eike Grüning, has already said that, according to the files, everything is as the mayor claims.

Transparency looks different.

According to the findings of the file inspection committee, Mayor Immisch is no longer acceptable for the Green City Councilor Thomas Nordmeyer. He must step back, he said. FDP and the remaining Green City Councilors want to wait until the final report of the file inspection committee at the end of September with their final assessment. The presumption of innocence applies, said Müller, referring to the parallel public prosecutor's investigation against Immisch. In any case, the opposition wants to check whether there is a professional liability of the mayor, which in this case would have to pay for part of the lost 19 million euros.