The finance minister rejects the allegations.
(Photo: IMAGO/Arnulf Hettrich)
Berlin Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has rejected allegations in connection with a loan for his private home purchase. The “Tagesspiegel” reported that the minister gave a video speech for the bank that financed his house purchase. The public prosecutor’s office is now examining the lifting of Lindner’s MP immunity, the newspaper said.
Lindner’s lawyer Christian Schertz announced on Sunday: “Mr. Lindner started his private real estate financing long before he took over his ministry. All conditions were always customary in the market. Granting a short greeting on anniversaries such as the centenary of a bank is part of the normal conduct of a minister’s office.”
The “Tagesspiegel” reported that Lindner held the greeting for a private customer bank in Karlsruhe in May 2022 and “apparently concealed” that he had taken out a loan from the institute. Because after the greeting he had another loan from the same bank, he is now threatened with criminal proceedings for accepting an advantage.
The corruption department of the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office is currently examining the lifting of Lindner’s immunity as a member of parliament in order to be able to formally investigate. A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said, according to the newspaper, that this is “usual in such cases and without a statement being made about the existence of an initial suspicion”.
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