Occurrencies smear city officials

Several arcades from Braunschweig are said to have lubricated an official in 140 cases. The man now has to answer in a legal proceedings. As local media report, it is about bribes in the amount of 86,000 $ . The official had received this sum over several years in order to only partially or not even partially or not at all.

Eight arcades involved

After careful examination of the entire fact, the public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig assumes that the official of a total of eight different arcade operators and slot machines received lubricating money. Through the commercial infidelity in 140 cases If the city had lost over 721,000 $ in income from the amusement tax. Even if the accusation The public prosecutor’s office is mainly directed against the former employee of the city, the gambling companies concerned would also have to answer to the law.

So two operators would already have space on the dock in District court in Braunschweig have taken. The public prosecutor’s office, infidelity and bribery were accused. However, you have that Criminal prosecution set up very quickly, because the two companies are said to have granted a full culmination. The tax liability was recognized. Retrospectively, they are now obliged to pay 100,000 $ in amusement tax. The sentence will be rounded off by a money requirement of 4,500 $ each, which will benefit a non -profit organization.

Amusement tax. It is considered a local expense tax and is applied to organized amusements. In addition to dance events, special film screenings and the offer of sexual actions against remuneration, this also includes the operation of gaming and entertainment devices.

Disimitions lead to investigation

The bribe affair between the city’s former employee and the eight gambling companies is said to have become conspicuous for the first time in 2015. For example, a tax advisor of one of the gaming companies involved during the preparation of the tax return Discovered discrepancies in accountingthat was forwarded to the city administration over time. In this way, the authority was able to make more precise examinations. It came out that in two special cases the amusement tax was set too low for 114,000 $ .

When the public prosecutor was involved, the investigation continued to find out that the accused was responsible for the processing and feeding of the entertainment tax for gaming and entertainment equipment. Since the entire process of tax settlement runs via a database, be it possible for the accused Manipulate system with fake numbers. In some cases, he even did not charge any amusement tax for the companies. In return for his services, he received a total of 86,000 $ in cash.

Suspension. After the evidence and evidence against the official were piled up and the bribe affair was uncovered, he was suspended immediately. In addition, the city initiated disciplinary proceedings against it.

Should the defendant be found guilty by the district court in all charges, threaten him several years in prison. Due to the pronounced disciplinary proceedings on the part of the city, the former official threatens a prison sentence of three months to five years in the event of a conviction. However, the prison stay would increase significantly again in this scenario, since the 140 cases are legally considered to be commercial infidelity. This adds a second imprisonment that counts between six months and ten years.

Questionable division of labor

City spokesman Adrian Foitzik tried to explain how the long undiscovered corruption within the city workforce was possible. So he spoke of one legal loopholeThat it should have made it possible for the former employee to put a considerable sum past the state money bags. In reality, however, the internal division of labor was the breeding ground for corruption.

So the amusement tax is in the Area of responsibility of a single person fall, which resulted in a lack of control body. Although any supervisors were taken into account to check the calculations set up for the collection of the tax. However, this review was only done in the sense of plausibility, which was proven to be able to manipulate enough.

Attempt to justify. In the further course of his statement, Foitzek tried to smooth the waves around the corruption scandal. In his opinion, it was clear that the city administration cannot fully act against corruption among 4,000 employees. Preventive measures and control mechanisms are unable to completely rule out bribery.

The youngest bribe affair is No individual case in Braunschweig. There have been four other cases of corruption in the past ten years, whereupon an internal disclosure department was installed in 2003.