With the video greeting from Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), the Karlsruhe BBBank has apparently been given a rather rare honor. This emerges from a list of speeches, guest contributions and greetings that the Federal Ministry of Finance published at the request of CDU MP Matthias Hauer and that is available in the Tagesspiegel.
Accordingly, Lindner has only spoken two more video messages for companies since the beginning of September last year – BBBank had received one from him in May 2022 for its 100th anniversary. Overall, since taking office in December 2021, Linder – including written greetings – has been available in just 23 cases out of more than 100 inquiries from private companies.
So far, the ministry has held back almost everything related to Lindner’s greetings business
For the time being, the ministry has not announced whether and which other video greetings there could have been for companies last year. One is currently working on a list of all dates associated with “considerable effort”.
Since the beginning of his term of office, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner has received approximately 1,400 appointment requests. A suitable electronic recording of the individual inquiries does not take place.
Excerpt from the Federal Government’s response to the CDU MP Matthias Hauer
As reported, the corruption department of the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office is examining whether an investigation must be carried out against Lindner on suspicion of accepting an advantage. The authority had therefore entered into a “usual preliminary check” regarding Lindner’s immunity, who is also a member of the Bundestag. Statements about the existence of an initial suspicion were not made, it said.
The ex-FDP treasurer received a ministerial speech for his “Berliner Salon”
The background to the measure are Lindner’s loans from the BBBank of up to 2.8 million euros for the purchase and renovation of his private home. A few weeks before registering a second land charge of 450,000 euros, the politician had a greeting written for the Karlsruher Genossenschaftsbank in his ministry.
Lindner denies there is any connection to his private affairs; the loans were granted at normal market conditions.
With the list that has now been published, the Ministry of Finance has for the first time commented extensively on relevant appointments by Lindner. Research inquiries from the Tagesspiegel were largely left unanswered until the “pre-examination” became known.
The CDU MP Hauer had limited his request to Lindner’s last 14 appearances for private companies. According to the answer, the focus was on media activities, including Handelsblatt, FAZ and Süddeutsche Zeitung. There were special video greetings for “Transaction 22”, a meeting of the fintech industry, and the opinion research institute Insa.
However, the overview also shows that Lindner can be approached in his new office by old acquaintances: In October 2022, for example, the minister was a guest for a speech in the “Berliner Salon” of entrepreneur Harald Christ, former treasurer of the FDP.
With the energy company Eon, Lindner was also available in an official capacity as a speaker for a company in October 2022, which had rewarded him as a member of parliament in 2018 with a fee of “Level 3” for lectures – an amount according to the transparency rules of the Bundestag at the time between 7000 and 15,000 Euro.
The BBBank pays well for speeches – especially for those of FDP politicians
There was also a written ministerial greeting in November for the “10. Anniversary Capital Market Conference” by “Investor Partners GmbH”, which Lindner rewarded for appearing at its seventh “Capital Market Conference” in 2019, according to the Bundestag website, with a “Level 3” payment.
Lindner’s lawyer explained: “Mr. Lindner has always correctly reported and published all previous sideline activities to the German Bundestag. Appointments as a minister are not related to events that he had attended in some cases years earlier.” For example, the Hessian finance minister was personally present as a speaker at the “Capital Markets Conference”, which is why a written greeting from the Federal Finance Minister was appropriate.
Lindner also received “level 3” in at least three of his appearances as an FDP member of parliament for the BBBank, which tends to recruit top political figures for its “Exclusive evenings for the public service”. Political celebrities who are also coveted as speakers, such as the left-wing politicians Sahra Wagenknecht and Gregor Gysi, only came to level 2 at the “Exclusive Evenings”, which was 3,500 to a maximum of 7,000 euros.
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Finance Minister Lindner has so far given speeches and greetings for private sector companies
The more expensive “level 3” was offered by the BBBank for another FDP leader: Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, future ambassador in Moscow, was a guest three times for “evening events”. However, the deputy had to be satisfied with “Level 2” twice. Lambsdorff explained that – unlike Lindner – he had no other private business relationships with BBBank.
Lindner’s paid appearances at the bank could also play a role in the further assessments of the Attorney General’s Office. In Internet videos that have since been deleted, the politician appeared as a kind of brand ambassador.
The business connection also apparently goes back further than previously known: A BBBank customer magazine named the politician as a speaker at an “Exclusive Evening” in 2014, at that time still the FDP parliamentary group leader in the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament.
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