Previously unknown preliminary investigations against the former mayor and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) outraged the opposition in the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry (PUA) of the Hamburg citizenship on the "Cum-Ex" scandal.
The Hamburg public prosecutor's office confirmed to the German Press Agency on Friday that preliminary investigations had been carried out against Scholz on charges of infidelity from February 2020 to September of this year.
The basis was therefore several criminal charges.
Since there was no initial suspicion, the procedure was discontinued without initiating an investigation, said a spokeswoman.
The ARD magazine “Panorama” and “Manager Magazin” had previously reported on it.
"It's a scandal"
The fact that the committee of inquiry had not been informed about the process was “cheek”, said the chairman of the left in the PUA, Norbert Hackbusch, of the dpa.
It would have been the task of the presidential department in the Senate Chancellery to provide relevant information.
CDU chairman Richard Seelmaecker spoke according to “Panorama” and “Manager Magazin” of a deliberate deception of parliament.
"It is a scandal that files are repeatedly withheld from the committee."
The PUA is to clarify a possible political influence of leading SPD politicians on the tax treatment of the Warburg Bank involved in the "Cum-Ex" scandal.
The background to this are meetings between Scholz and the bank owners in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, the Hamburg tax authorities waived additional tax claims for 2009 and 2010 amounting to 47 million euros against the bank after the limitation period had expired.
Another 43 million euros were only requested in 2017 after the Federal Ministry of Finance intervened.