Sum suspended by Innogy
Whistleblower after acid attack collects 200,000 euros
January 26, 2024, 10:05 p.m
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After the acid attack on energy manager Günther around six years ago, more and more details are coming to light. Another manager is said to be the mastermind of the attack. The tips come from an anonymous contact who collects a large sum in return.
After the acid attack on energy manager Bernhard Günther, a whistleblower received a reward of almost 200,000 euros. This is what the whistleblower’s contact, a lawyer, testified in the trial surrounding the assassination attempt at the Wuppertal regional court.
The lawyer described himself as a specialist for whistleblowers in cases of suspected white-collar crime. The 49-year-old had evaluated clues about the perpetrators after Günther’s employer at the time, Innogy, offered a large sum to catch the perpetrators. The investigations by the police and public prosecutor’s office had previously been unsuccessful.
An attack was carried out on Günther on March 4, 2018: two men ambushed the manager near his private home in Haan near Düsseldorf and doused him with highly concentrated sulfuric acid. Günther’s goal is to bring to light who ordered the attack.
The whistleblower was clearly interested in money, said the lawyer. His tips had brought about a breakthrough: a perpetrator with a Belgian passport has already been legally sentenced to twelve years in prison, and a second 36-year-old suspect, who is said to be an accomplice, is currently on trial.
The client should be another top manager
Günther recognized the man in a photo: “Yes, that’s him.” There were ten or eleven meetings with the whistleblower. He said he also knew a third name, but wouldn’t say it because it was “too hot” for him.
The client is said to be a top manager from the German energy industry who has not yet been publicly named and who wanted to eliminate Günther as a professional rival at the time. The whistleblower said that the client was “a relatively big shot,” but he didn’t know who it was.
Günther was seriously injured in the acid attack. Eyelids and parts of his facial skin had to be transplanted. At the time, the manager was the head of finance at the energy company Innogy, which was taken over by the Eon Group a few days later. Today he is a manager at the Finnish energy supplier Fortum with more than 19,000 employees.