Osnabrück public prosecutor's office: Everything was clean during the search of the Scholz

The search in the Federal Ministry of Finance by Olaf Scholz on Thursday led to accusations between the parties two weeks before the federal election.

The SPD candidate for chancellor said the search operation should "evaluate each for himself".

From his point of view, the Osnabrück public prosecutors could also have “put their questions in writing”.

CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet accused Scholz of behavior that is "otherwise only known from populist states".

“You should avoid anything that gives the impression that we don't have an independent judiciary,” said Laschet.

Reinhard Bingener

Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.

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In the case, it is about the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the central office for combating money laundering. For a long time, complaints have been made about the inefficiency of the FIU. The FIU was transferred from the Federal Criminal Police Office to customs by the then Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) and has been under the Ministry of Finance ever since.

Since the beginning of 2020, the Osnabrück public prosecutor's office has been investigating persons in charge of the FIU on suspicion of thwarting punishment.

The starting point are suspicious transaction reports to the FIU.

It is about transfers to Africa in the millions, where bankers suspected both arms and drug trafficking as well as terrorist financing.

A bank later asked the Osnabrück investigators what happened to their tip.

The prosecutors found that the information was never passed on to them by the FIU.

There were also searches beforehand

The Osnabrück public prosecutor's office then began its investigations and in the course of the investigation carried out two searches at the FIU, in July 2020 and May 2021. Investigations into preventing criminal offenses in office are considered demanding, as it is often difficult to legally arrest a person responsible . In the case at hand, it was also considered obvious that the FIU officers discussed with their superiors in the Federal Ministry of Finance how to cope with the flood of suspicious activity reports and overburdening oneself.

This assumption was confirmed, because the Osnabrück investigators came across extensive communication between the FIU and the Federal Ministry of Finance, which in turn consulted with the Federal Ministry of Justice, according to FAZ information in July of this year. The communication between the FIU and the public prosecutor's office, on the other hand, is described as "very moderate".

Therefore, the prosecutors decided to carry out searches in the two Berlin ministries as well.

On August 10, the responsible district court initially only issued a decision for a search in the Ministry of Finance.

However, the investigators wanted, it is said, to search both houses at the same time.

The lack of a decision to search the Justice Ministry - also led by the SPD - was issued on August 25th.

However, another two weeks passed before the search last week.

The reason for this delay is given as the necessary arrangements with the police, and the train strike is said to have played a minor role.

"Suspiciously" long period of time?

The SPD says that the search of a ministry is disproportionate in this case. In addition, the period between the decision to search the Federal Ministry of Finance and its implementation is suspiciously long. The view therefore goes to Lower Saxony, where the Ministry of Justice is led by the former Osnabrück judge Barbara Havliza (CDU). However, the Ministry in Hanover points out that the Osnabrück public prosecutor's office only informed them immediately before the upcoming search. The search began on Thursday at 9.15 a.m., the report to the ministry was made at 9 a.m.

In connection with possible political motives, however, the head of the public prosecutor's office in Osnabrück is also mentioned: from 2008 to 2010, the officer was the office manager of the former Lower Saxony Minister of Justice Bernd Busemann (CDU) and also active in local politics for the Union in Cloppenburg. The head of the agency does not conduct the investigations against the FIU employees himself, even if he signs the reports to the State Ministry of Justice. According to an authority expert, he would have had the opportunity to influence the time of a search as the head. The head is also said to have participated in the search in the Federal Ministry of Finance on Thursday.

From a legal point of view, it is clear that political opportunities should have no meaning in a search, either in one direction or the other. A point in time shortly before an election may not be deliberately chosen, nor may a measure be delayed until after the election.

The only thing that matters is that the process is legally conclusive. Based on the files, the procedure is clean, the Ministry of Justice in Hanover announced on request. "It is possible that it is clean," says Helge Limburg, Parliamentary Director of the Greens in the Lower Saxony state parliament. "In order to check that, we will request information from the Legal Affairs Committee," adds Limburg. "The question is: Why this martial appearance two and a half weeks before the federal election and not a written request to hand over the files first?"