QMF scandal
The QMF scandal is a political affair uncovered in 2004 in the Ministry of Economics of the Free State of Saxony .
prehistory
In the mid-1990s, the Center for Microelectronics Dresden (ZMD) was privatized and sold to Sachsenring AG . Several hundred of the workers made redundant in the course of the transaction were sent to the “Qualification Society for Microelectronics and Vehicle Technology” (QMF), which was founded in 1998 for this purpose , for further training or to complete internships . For the costs of these measures, the Saxon State Government used funds from the European Social Fund ESF from 1999 to 2001 . In fact, however, there were no qualification measures, rather the employees were kept on in their old jobs at the expense of the European Union . A total of around € 21 million should have flowed. Reclaiming payments unduly made to QMF and other recipients is likely to be difficult, especially as QMF went bankrupt in early 2004.
Prosecution
After the irregularity was noticed in a routine random sample by EU auditors in June 2003, the special investigation commission INES of the Dresden public prosecutor's office searched 30 properties nationwide in May 2004, including rooms of the Saxon State Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labor . As a result, investigations were initiated against 16 people; the former head of department work in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Hans Neufischer, and former QMF CEO Helmut sting were in custody taken.
In August 2005 the public prosecutor brought charges of breach of trust against Neufischer, the head of the economic development department Ulrich Schlicht and the responsible State Secretary Wolfgang Vehse , and in August 2006 also against the then deceased Minister of Economic Affairs Kajo Schommer . The damage was recently put at around € 7 million.
Wolfgang Vehse was sentenced on September 12, 2008 by the Dresden Regional Court to a fine of € 27,000 for unofficial false statements . The court counted while a prison sentence of five months on probation to result in a fine of 150 daily rates of 180 €. Vehse was acquitted of the allegation of aiding and abetting infidelity. His appeal for a review was rejected by the Federal Court of Justice on March 25, 2009.
The regional court also came to a verdict on Hans Neufischer on April 8, 2009: eleven months and two weeks imprisonment, suspended on probation. Neufischer appealed against the judgment.
Individual evidence
- ^ Sven Heitkamp, DIE WELT May 5, 2004, EU funding scandal in Saxony
- ↑ Reiner Burger, FAZ June 2, 2004, septic tanks for subsidies
- ↑ Thomas Hartwig, Indictment against top officials from the Ministry, DNN August 12, 2005
- ^ Ingolf Pleil, allegations of corruption against Schommer, DNN August 18, 2006
- ^ Regional court sentenced ex-State Secretary Vehse to a fine, Sächsische Zeitung September 12, 2008
- ^ Ingolf Pleil, Courts clarify responsibility for QMF scandal - suspended sentence for former department head, DNN May 9, 2009