Goldin (company)

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Goldin was the brand name of the gas station chain Goldin Tankbetriebe GmbH , which was founded in 1956 by the coal trader Erhard Goldbach in Wanne-Eickel and which went bankrupt in 1979 with a tax liability of around 345 million DM in the largest tax scandal in Germany to date .

background

In the second half of the 1970s, Goldbach had the largest independent gas station chain in the Federal Republic of Germany with more than 260 filling stations. By broadly interpreting the DIN standards and selling petrol bypassing the tax authorities, he permanently undercut the competition by a few (mostly two) pfennigs, thus driving the chain's turnover from 162 million DM (1973) to 2 billion DM (1978) high. In doing so, however, he had piled up a mountain of debt of over DM 340 million. With a pyramid scheme , large sales and acquisitions, he financed the tax debts, because the mineral oil tax did not have to be paid until months later. Although the tax authorities had serious doubts about the correctness of the chain's bookkeeping as early as February 1974, no further steps were initially taken. At this point in time, the filling stations were no longer profitable, but this was masked by, among other things, unchecked expansion. Goldin fuels were also sold at petrol stations of the Ratio and Plaza supermarket chains . Among other things, the then Federal Minister of Finance, Hans Matthöfer, sponsored Goldbach, who  knew how to win over decision-makers with large hunting parties and his own brothel  - the Hotel Club Harmonie in Rösrath . In the period from 1974 to 1979 Goldbach is said to have sold around 75 million liters of untaxed fuel. For this alone he would have had to pay about 33 million DM mineral oil tax. At the end of 1977 Goldbach received a state guarantee to secure an 18 million loan from the Bank für Gemeinwirtschaft . With the 18 million, the petrol station group supposedly wanted to finance 30,000 tons of fuel, which Bonn demanded as a mandatory reserve for times of crisis. Shortly thereafter, however, Goldbach sold most of this reserve clandestinely.

On May 28, 1979, an unannounced tax audit was scheduled by the tax authorities, which led to the immediate closure of the gas stations. Erhard Goldbach had initially set off abroad with a few million DM in good time and was therefore also sought unsolved internationally in 1979 in the wanted mailing Aktenzeichen XY . After his arrest in Boppard on February 13, 1980, he was sentenced to six years and six months 'imprisonment for fraud and another twelve years' imprisonment on April 3, 1985 for tax evasion . The millions of dollars that were taken in through business activities but evaded were never found. The more than 260 Goldin petrol stations with 400 employees were mostly taken over by the tenants or other oil companies (e.g. Aral , another 70 locations by UnionKraftstoff ) after the bankruptcy .

Erhard Goldbach sponsored Westfalia Herne , which in the course of this was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga . In 1977 the club was temporarily renamed SC Westfalia Goldin 04 Herne .

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt: Even more bankruptcy applications ( Memento of July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) No. 175 of July 30, 1979, page 19
  2. ↑ a b Brandendämmerung: Untergegangene Namen - Goldin, in: Westfälische Rundschau, Supplement Economy, December 2011, p. 12
  3. ↑ cf. Brand twilight: Drowned names - Goldin, in: Westfälische Rundschau, Supplement Economy, December 2011, p. 12
  4. ↑ See Der Spiegel 39/1979, p. 105
  5. ↑ cf. Der Spiegel 7/1980, p. 47 f.
  6. ↑ On the hunt for the Goldbach millions from westen.de, accessed on January 29, 2012
  7. ↑ Die Zeit , September 28, 1979, No. 40

Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 42.5 "  N , 7 ° 10 ′ 12.4"  E