Eureco Business Consulting Office
The Eureco Büro für Wirtschaftsberatung GmbH and Co. KG was a German company whose official corporate purpose was to advise and represent industrial companies. The actual purpose was to provide the couple Franz Josef and Marianne Strauss with financial contributions from companies without adequate consideration. It had to be ruled out that the beneficiaries appeared externally.
background
Strauss came from a humble background and did not have a large financial fortune until Eureco was founded. After his resignation as defense minister in the course of the Spiegel affair , the ministerial salaries were missing. The Strauss couple decided to monetize Strauss's contacts with commercial enterprises.
Establishment of the company and ownership structure
The company was founded in October 1964. The company contracts designed by the lawyer and later CSU - member of the Bundestag Reinhold Kreile who wrote the texts by hand using a typewriter, to minimize the number of initiates. The limited partnership in the form of a GmbH & Co. KG consisted of Eureco GmbH as a personally liable partner and limited partners who were not liable with their entire assets, but only with their contribution. In order to conceal the true ownership of the company, only Kreile and a lawyer Glock appeared as shareholders. Internally, however, they were only trustees or straw men of the beneficial owners, Franz Josef and Marianne Strauss , with the exception of Kreile's 10% stake in the GmbH and in the limited partnership capital .
| Shareholders according to registration in the commercial register | Shares in% | Fiduciary position |
|---|---|---|
| Reinhold Kreile | 10% | none (for yourself) |
| Reinhold Kreile | 67.5% | for Franz Josef Strauss |
| Attorney Glock | 22.5% | for Marianne Strauss |
| Shareholders according to registration in the commercial register | Shares in% | Fiduciary position |
|---|---|---|
| Eureco GmbH | 20% | no |
| Reinhold Kreile | 10% | none (for yourself) |
| Reinhold Kreile | 54% | for Franz Josef Strauss |
| Attorney Glock | 16% | for Marianne Strauss |
Activity of the company
The company had neither employees nor its own office space, only "a mailbox address that belongs to the office of the law firm of one of the parties involved." The company concluded consulting contracts with companies such as Maxhütte, Pegulan-Werke , Daimler -Benz AG of the Flick group of companies , Dornier GmbH , the MBB group , the Kirch group and the like. a. from. The "consulting services" were "not worth the paper they are on."
Legal assessment
According to Peter Siebenmorgen, the company was only active in periods when he was not in a state office, so that, in his opinion, corruption offenses were ruled out. He also denies tax offenses . The question of whether the paying companies were allowed to deduct the amounts as business expenses is not addressed .
literature
- Peter Siebenmorgen : Franz Josef Strauss. A life in excess. Pantheon, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-570-55350-3 , pp. 430-438.
- Gunther Latsch, Klaus Wiegrefe: A life for industry . In: Der Spiegel 35/2015, August 22, 2015. pp. 26–29
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The only known source for the society and its background is Peter Siebenmorg's Strauss biography. The author supports u. a. to unpublished sources such as the estate of Franz Josef Strauss in the Archive for Christian Social Policy (ACSP).
- ↑ Peter Siebenmorgen, Strauss, p. 430.
- ↑ Peter Siebenmorgen, Strauss, p. 431.
- ↑ Peter Siebenmorgen, Strauss, p. 431.
- ↑ "Taxes on profits are paid correctly; yes, in order to conceal the true background of this business model as well as possible, the people involved willingly accept paying more taxes than necessary. "Peter Siebenmorgen, Strauss, p. 430.