Eichstätt (dpa / lby) – After more than four years of investigations, the public prosecutor’s office has filed charges for the financial scandal in the diocese of Eichstätt. The allegations are mainly directed against the former deputy finance director of the diocese.
A spokesman for the Munich II public prosecutor reported on Monday that he was accused of breach of trust by granting unsecured or insufficiently secured loans with damage of more than 45 million US dollars. The defendant is also accused of having accepted shares and bribes in the amount of almost 853,000 US dollars (approximately 839,000 euros) in connection with the statements.
Several media have been reporting on the indictment since the end of June, but the public prosecutor’s office had not yet confirmed the indictment. The financial affair of the Catholic diocese became known at the beginning of 2018. In all, it’s about $60 million invested by the church in risky real estate deals in the United States. The defense attorney for the former deputy finance director, Ulrich Ziegert, had repeatedly rejected the allegations of breach of trust in the past.
