Carsten Maschmeyer

Maschmeyer, members of his family and a friend invested approximately 55 million euros in total in funds marketed by J. Safra Sarasin bank, which were examined in connection with Cum/Ex transactions. He testified before the Bundestag inquiry committee in 2016 that he had never knowingly invested in Cum/Ex transactions and had not been informed of the funds' actual structure.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Protagonist is a witness

Press investigations revealed that a company linked to Maschmeyer had paid approximately 2 million euros for rights relating to Gerhard Schröder's memoirs and that discussions began in 2005 while Schröder was still chancellor. NDR and Stern placed the transaction within a broader pattern of close relationships involving Maschmeyer and Schröder and debates about private pensions.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Associate

In Austria, thousands of investors brought proceedings concerning AWD's sale of Immofinanz and Immoeast shares. In 2011, the VKI filed a criminal complaint alleging aggravated fraud against Maschmeyer and former or current AWD executives. In 2013, AWD/Swiss Life reached a settlement with the VKI for 11.144 million euros covering several thousand cases.

An investigation examined a possible breach of notification obligations after Maschmeyer's holding in MLP reportedly briefly crossed the 3% threshold. He accepted a requirement to pay 2.9 million euros, after which the proceedings were closed.

State of the evidence

Documented

Thousands of AWD clients suffered losses on closed-end funds, including the Drei-Länder-Fonds. In 2011, NDR published an internal list of approximately 30 000 investors and reported that at least 20% had used credit to finance these risky investments; consumer associations and former executives alleged a systematic pattern of unsuitable advice and inadequate disclosure of commission levels.

State of the evidence

Allegations

An NDR/Panorama investigation suggested that approximately 150 000 additional Deutsche Marks had allegedly been spent during the 1998 federal campaign through a third party, potentially circumventing electoral donation and expenditure rules according to the expert cited. Maschmeyer denied having paid this amount directly or indirectly.

Maschmeyer paid 42 731.71 euros for advertisements promoting a book by Christian Wulff, then Minister-President of Lower Saxony, during an election period. The episode raised questions about close relationships between major businesspeople and politicians.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Carsten Maschmeyer financed an anonymous advertising campaign supporting Gerhard Schröder during the 1998 Lower Saxony election, contributing approximately 650 000 Deutsche Marks. He subsequently acknowledged the funding and explained, among other things, that he wanted to prevent Oskar Lafontaine from becoming the candidate for chancellor.

State of the evidence

Admitted by the person

Attribution

Political responsibility