Dresden District Court: City Councilor Frank Hannig accused of fraud
The public prosecutor’s office has been investigating the Dresden City Council and former criminal defense attorney Frank Hannig for years. He is said to have cheated investors out of millions.
Former lawyer Frank Hannig is said to have cheated investors. The public prosecutor’s office has now brought charges before the Dresden Regional Court against the 52-year-old, who was also elected to the Dresden City Council for the Free Voters.
© Archiv: xcitepress/Christian Essler
Dresden. The city council (elected on the list of free voters) and former lawyer Frank Hannig is said to have collected money from investors for three years and, after deducting his commission, transferred it abroad. It is about a damage of more than five million euros. On Maundy Thursday, the spokesman for the Dresden Regional Court, Andreas Feron, confirmed a corresponding charge by the Dresden public prosecutor in mid-March.
Hannig is accused of collective fraud in more than 100 cases. “It’s a kind of investment fraud,” says Feron. The allegations are now being examined by a Chamber of Commerce. An indictment before the regional court means that the public prosecutor’s office apparently considers a prison sentence of more than four years possible.
The investigations against Hannig became known for the first time in June 2021. At that time, the dazzling Dresden lawyer said on a lateral thinker stage in the federal election campaign that he knew what it was like when the police searched the office and apartment. There was speculation in the media about money laundering. Hannig himself spoke of proceedings against a client.
According to Sächsische.de information, the ball started rolling in autumn 2019 after an investor reported it in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is about pre-market trading in shares of international companies. In 2020, the Dresden public prosecutor took over the investigation. Lawyer Hannig is said to have acted as a trustee for foreign perpetrators, forwarding investors’ funds to Asia, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, and collecting commissions of almost 200,000 euros, according to the allegation. The indictment is said to be around 30 pages long, with long lists of payments from alleged investors.
Alleged accomplices unknown
Hannig is the only defendant in this case. It was apparently not possible to get hold of the foreign co-accused, although it is unclear whether they are known at all. The only thing that is clear, as is so often the case with such crimes, is that the money is gone.
Hannig’s defense attorney Ronald Mayer confirmed the charges but did not share them. His client passed on clients’ money in trust, which does not have to be punishable. “Only very, very few investors have said that they feel cheated,” Mayer said. He did not know of a single injured party who had claimed back his loss from Hannig. Mayer will appeal to the court against the opening of the main proceedings with an objection.
The 52-year-old ex-lawyer and local politician Frank Hannig never made the headlines. It was only in October last year that he gave up his license to practice law, for health reasons, as he said at the time. Because he quietly said goodbye as a lawyer, several ongoing criminal proceedings threatened to burst.
Known for unconventional style
His bankruptcy became known in December and that he no longer had access to his assets. At the turn of the year, he was expelled from the Free Voters faction in Dresden City Council because of differences. Most recently, he announced that he would be cutting back somewhat for health reasons, and he did not take part in city council meetings this year.
As a lawyer, Hannig was known for his unconventional style, for example he often reported on videos on social media about his processes and legal issues. Once, for example, he stood on the Pegida stage to inform about the cessation of criminal proceedings against an alleged Arnsdorf militia on the same day. As late as autumn 2022, Hannig was still a speaker at Dresden Monday demos, which were founded in the corona pandemic.
Hannig became known nationwide as a temporary defender of the right-wing extremist murderer of the Kassel district president Walter Lübcke. After a year, however, he was replaced as a lawyer in this process in a legally controversial procedure. In Kassel, the public prosecutor’s office then investigated the Dresden defense attorney for inciting false suspicion; the case is closed.
