Helmut Linssen

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Helmut Linssen (2019) with the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

Helmut Linssen (born June 21, 1942 in Krefeld ) is a German politician ( CDU ). He was Finance Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia from June 24, 2005 to July 15, 2010 , and immediately afterwards Federal Treasurer of the CDU. On February 6, 2014, he announced his retirement due to increasing pressure after his tax haven business became known.

education and profession

Linssen comes from a Catholic-conservative family in the Lower Rhine region . After graduating from the humanistic grammar school of the district and the city of Geldern in 1961, he completed a commercial apprenticeship in wholesale and foreign trade as well as in import and export in Hamburg. Linssen then studied economics and social sciences at the University of Hamburg and the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . He finished his studies in 1968 as a graduate in business administration and was in Munich in 1972 with a thesis on interdependencies in the sales policy instruments of the company to Dr. rer. pole. PhD. During his studies and afterwards, he worked as a self-employed businessman in the family's medium-sized company, an agricultural wholesaler with milling operations founded by his father in 1925, Heinrich Linssen KG in Geldern, which merged in 1994 to form BSL - Biesterfeld Scheibler Linssen GmbH & Co. KG in Hamburg.

Political career

Election poster with Linssen as the top candidate for the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1995

Linssen joined the CDU in 1972 and served on the council in his hometown of Geldern ( Lower Rhine ) from 1975 to 1980 . In 1980 he moved into the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament for the first time . He represented the constituency of Kleve I , which today includes the municipalities of Geldern , Issum , Kalkar , Kerken , Kevelaer , Rheurdt , Straelen , Uedem , Wachtendonk and Weeze . From 1987 to 1991 he was Secretary General of the CDU North Rhine-Westphalia and from 1990 to 1999 chairman of the CDU parliamentary group . As such, he also served as opposition leader in the state parliament. In the state elections in 1995 he ran as a top candidate against the then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and later Federal President Johannes Rau , but could not prevail against him.

In January 1999, Linssen applied to be the state chairman of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia. The post had become vacant due to Norbert Bluem's resignation . In addition to Linssen, the former State Secretary in the Federal Building Ministry, Christa Thoben , and the former Federal Minister Jürgen Rüttgers applied for the chairmanship. The latter narrowly prevailed against Linssen. From 2000 to 2005 he was 1st Vice President of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia and Chairman of the Committee for Economy, Medium-Sized Enterprises and Technology.

In the 2005 state elections , Linssen won the direct mandate in his constituency with 58.4% of the valid votes. From July 2005 to July 2010 he was a member of Jürgen Rüttgers' cabinet as Finance Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. In the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2010 , he no longer entered the state parliament. Due to the CDU's electoral defeat and the associated circumstance that Jürgen Rüttgers had to hand over government affairs to his SPD opponent Hannelore Kraft , Linssen also left the state government.

At the 23rd party congress of the CDU in Germany on November 15, 2010, he was elected as the successor of Eckart von Klaeden to the CDU's federal treasurer with 97.18 percent of the vote .

Post at the RAG Foundation

Linssen was responsible for finances on the board of the RAG-Stiftung from December 2012 to April 2019 . The Foundation shall after the end of coal mining in Germany from 2019 Eternity cost finance (Dauersberg damage, mine dewatering and groundwater treatment) of mining and manages a multi-billion dollar public property. As part of his management board mandate at the foundation, Linssen also holds positions on the supervisory board of RAG Aktiengesellschaft and RAG Deutsche Steinkohle AG . Linssen received 650,000 euros a year for his offices. He resigned from office on April 5, 2019. His successor is Jürgen-Johann Rupp.

Memberships and other mandates

He is a member of the Association of Catholic Entrepreneurs .

Discontinued criminal proceedings for tax evasion

On February 4, 2014 it was announced that the Linssen family money by setting up offshore - letterbox companies had relocated abroad. In August 1997, Helmut Linssen had 829,322 mark at the bank HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt International paid SA in Luxembourg in cash, which was paid after the bank using first to a trust named "Longdown Properties Corp." which on the tax haven Bahamas registered was. Linssen had expressly agreed with the bank that it would be collected by the customer. No document should be sent to Germany. When rumors arose in 2001 that the Bahamas would no longer be hiding letterbox companies, HSBC had the account closed and assigned to another letterbox company in Panama . The company was designed in such a way that outsiders, such as the German authorities, could not tell who it belonged to. Linssen closed the account at the end of 2004, a few months before Jürgen Rüttgers brought him into his competence team for the NRW state elections in 2005 and he became CDU state finance minister in NRW in 2005.

In 2010, Linssen's successor as Finance Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Norbert Walter-Borjans , bought a tax CD . It contained data from customers of HSBC-Trinkaus & Burkhardt Bank. In 2012, criminal proceedings were initiated against Linssen. However, due to the limitation period , Linssen only had to prove its interest income for the years 2001 to 2005. Since at least no interest was accrued during this period, as the investment costs were higher than the income, the proceedings were discontinued without additional payment. He chose the “most expensive solution on the market in order to guarantee no profit,” said Linssen. The tax authorities could not clarify where the money came from that Lissen used to top up the account in Luxembourg in 1997. Linssen denied tax evasion and stated that the money was "the private assets of my deceased parents, which our family earned correctly for tax purposes".

On February 6, 2014, three days after the revelations became known, the party accepted its treasurer's resignation. He resigned his office as treasurer at the CDU district association Kleve "with immediate effect". His name appeared in the " Panama Papers " published in April 2016 on owners of mailbox companies .

family

His father died when Helmut Linssen was 19 years old. He has a brother, has been married since 1970, has a daughter and five grandchildren.

Web links

Commons : Helmut Linssen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • " Mr. Linssen in Paradise ", star no. 7, February 6, 2014

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Linssen: “'In the interests of the party and my family, I have decided to ask the party leaders to elect a new treasurer at the upcoming party congress in April,' Linssen told the 'Bild' newspaper.” Quoted from: Report on Mailbox company: CDU treasurer Linssen resigns , Spiegel Online, February 6, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b personally. Helmut Linssen, archived from the original on February 22, 2014 ; accessed on September 10, 2019 .
  3. ^ History of the CDU NRW , accessed on October 24, 2013.
  4. ↑ Dr. Helmut Linssen. RAG-Stiftung, accessed on February 1, 2019 .
  5. ^ Frank Dohmen: Tax affair: Linssen should be allowed to keep 650,000 euro items. , Spiegel Online, February 8, 2014.
  6. ↑ Dr. Jürgen Rupp appointed as the new CFO of the RAG-Stiftung. RAG-Stiftung, April 1, 2019, accessed on July 29, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Wigbert Löer, Oliver Schröm: C DU treasurer Linssen hoarded money in the mailbox company , Stern Online, February 4, 2014.
  8. ↑ Bernd Dörries, Hans Leyendecker : The CDU treasurer speaks in riddles , Süddeutsche Zeitung, Feb. 5, 2014; discusses the delivery conditions and the importance of "self-collection".
  9. ↑ Wigbert Löer, Oliver Schröm: CDU treasurer Linssen hoarded money in the mailbox company. , Stern Online, February 4, 2014.
  10. ^ Rainer Kellers: Allegations against ex-finance minister: Helmut Linssen had an account in the Bahamas. ( Memento from February 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive )}, wdr.de, February 4, 2014.
  11. ↑ Rainer Kellers: Linssen's chair on the RAG board wobbles ( memento from February 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), wdr.de, February 8, 2014.
  12. ^ Süddeutsche.de GmbH: Panama Papers - Frequently asked questions about Panama Papers - and answers . April 5, 2016. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Linssen, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Krefeld