Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) – Because he received around 34,000 euros from the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Awo) without consideration, an Awo employee has been sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment on probation by the Frankfurt district court. A corresponding penalty order remained in place on Monday after the 50-year-old had lodged an objection, but then did not appear at the court hearing.
The man was convicted of aiding and abetting infidelity. In addition, he must pay back the money wrongly obtained. The penalty order is not yet legally binding – the convicted person still has the opportunity to apply for reinstatement.
Between 2016 and 2018, the accused had additional income on several occasions – a fee contract was concluded, a mini-job was set up without actual activity and non-tariff allowances were granted without reason. According to the verdict, this happened at the instigation of the managing directors of the Awo associations in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. While fines would be consistently imposed in other comparable cases, according to the public prosecutor’s office, the prison sentence for the 50-year-old can be explained by his previous convictions.
The traditional social association Arbeiterwohlfahrt has been shaken by a scandal since 2019. The focus is on the two district associations in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, which were headed by two spouses. It’s about unusually high salaries and luxury company cars, opaque interdependencies and financing, bogus contracts and ties to politics. There are a number of trials at various courts in the complex.