Germany’s Lindner Won’t Face Criminal Probe on Real Estate Loans
(Bloomberg) -- German Finance Minister Christian Lindner won’t lose his immunity and therefore won’t face an investigation on real estate loans after prosecutors concluded that there’s no indication of any criminal conduct.
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The chief of the Free Democrats will keep his parliamentary immunity, according to a statement released by Berlin’s General Prosecutor on Friday. “The examination revealed neither an initial suspicion of bribery” of a lawmaker, nor “of the acceptance of an advantage” under the German criminal code, it said.
The watchdog was reviewing the matter after German media reported that Lindner, who had already taken out a real estate loan with Karlsruhe-based BBBank, provided a video message to mark its 100-year anniversary before then taking out another one with the same financial institution.
That prompted a preliminary probe by officials to determine whether to lift his immunity to be able to investigate.
“Ultimately, and most importantly, the review did not provide any indication that the granting of the loan was linked to the expectation of influencing future and/or rewarding past work — not even in the sense of creating general goodwill in relation to future decisions,” the statement said.
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