New allegations in the AWO scandal
Member of Parliament from Wiesbaden accused
08/26/2022, 3:28 p.m
In the corruption scandal surrounding the Hessian workers’ welfare organization, Frankfurt’s Lord Mayor Feldmann is awaiting trial. But the SPD politician is not the only one: there are now charges against a city councilor from Wiesbaden.
More than two and a half years after allegations of fraud and excessive salaries at the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) in Hesse became known, the Frankfurt am Main public prosecutor’s office has brought further charges in the complex. A 40-year-old former city councilor from Wiesbaden is accused of aiding and abetting infidelity in a particularly serious case, as the authority announced.
The man is said to have agreed in April 2015 with the former managing director of the Wiesbaden AWO district association to pay him a monthly salary on the basis of two employment relationships for which he would not have had to work. The accused should therefore be given the opportunity to devote himself fully to his work in the city council.
In return, the former AWO managing director is said to have expected the politician to take the interests of the welfare association into account when exercising his local political functions. According to the indictment, the man was intended as a consultant to the management of the AWO district association. However, during his approximately two-year employment period, he is said to have not even come close to completing the owed work performance of 30 hours per week. According to the prosecution, the district association suffered damage of over one hundred thousand euros.
Fictitious work in a nursing home
According to the information, there was also another employment relationship that would have provided for the man’s marginal employment as a caregiver in a nursing home for the elderly. However, it is said to have been a purely bogus employment relationship. The compensation paid of around 9,400 euros was not offset by any work by the accused. The employer, a support association for the elderly care center, is said to have suffered damage of around twelve thousand euros.
With regard to the suspicion of bribery of elected officials, according to the Attorney General’s Office, there is no sufficient suspicion to bring charges. The investigations did not provide any evidence that the city councilor’s voting behavior had been influenced by the money payments from the employment relationships. The Wiesbaden district court must now decide whether to open the main proceedings. The separate investigations against the politician because of the further allegation of breach of official secrecy continued.
Trial against Frankfurt’s OB Feldmann in October
Only recently the public prosecutor’s office brought charges against three former managers of the welfare association in Hesse and a lawyer. Among them were the former managing director of the AWO district association in Frankfurt and his wife, who was managing director of the AWO in Wiesbaden until the beginning of 2020.
From October, the Lord Mayor of Frankfurt, Peter Feldmann, will also have to answer to the court for corruption allegations in the course of the AWO scandal. The former wife of the SPD politician is said to have received too much money as the head of a daycare center. The employment relationship is said to have been concluded due to his position as Lord Mayor.
Because of these and other allegations, Feldmann offered to resign on January 31. However, the city council voted out the 63-year-old in mid-July with a large majority. On November 6, the city will vote on its political future in a referendum.