The German prosecutor’s office held a search in the office of financial intelligence units (FIU) of the Ministry of Finance. The raid took place as part of the investigation of the effectiveness of the fight against money laundering. The control authority suspected officials in ignoring reports of fraud received from banks. Reports about it Bloomberg.
The prosecutor’s office searched the Fiu office after the scandal associated with the local Wirecard company. In June 2020, it turned out that 1.9 billion euros disappeared from the company’s accounts, and after the information appeared that Wirecard employees paid in Africa more than a million euros (1.2 million dollars) in 2018. There are suspicions that the money was aimed at trafficking in drugs and weapons. Fiu received a warning about the preparing transaction, but did not inform the police about it. Because of this, the payment could not be stopped, stated in the prosecutor’s office.
After this incident, concerns about the negligence relationship of German officials to financial crimes intensified. A recent search was held by the Prosecutor’s Office for collecting information on how much the activities of the division meets the legal norms. According to the controlling authority, the purpose of the raid was “to find out whether management and responsible persons were involved in the ministry and other supervisory units in the decision of FIU and, if so, to what extent.”
The scandal led to the bankruptcy of Wirecard, and its CEO was arrested on charges of “overestimation of Wirecard AG sales with fictitious income.” According to some information, the company participated in laundering money from illegal sources. The top manager of Wirecard Jan Marsalka ran from the country after the scandal and became one of the most famous chairs in the world. In August 2020, Interpol announced a search fraudster, but its location is still not known.
Germany was repeatedly exposed to pressure from international communities, such as the organization of economic cooperation and development, as well as fighters for financial transparency. They accused government agencies in non-compliance with the global standards of combating money laundering. The Ministry of Finance is under close attention due to violations in the activities of FIU and BAFIN units (Federal Financial Supervision Administration), since the investigation into Wirecard and its employees is still continuing.