‘Last Generation’ activist sentenced to prison

The Tiergarten District Court sentenced a leading member of the “Last Generation” to a prison sentence of one year and four months without parole on Wednesday.

32-year-old Miriam M.  was previously fined for her acts of protest in the past. But M. continued undeterred, and was arrested against at road blockades by the climate activists.

She has been found guilty of resisting law enforcement officers, coercion and damage to property.

According to the court, M. played a significant role in at least seven acts with the group in the past including five road blockades, and smearing orange paint on the façade of the Federal Ministry of Transport as well as the Gucci store on Berlin’s Ku’damm.

A few weeks ago, the Neuruppin public prosecutor’s office charged five members of the Last Generation on charges of forming a criminal organization. The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office is also conducting similar investigations.

Miriam M. commented on the indictment on Platform X, suggesting that her crimes were all in effort to “to preserve our safe life in the future”.

In a statement on X, Last Generation stated: “If peaceful protest is criminalised, it concerns us all.”

According to a report by global civil society alliance CIVICUS, climate activists have faced restrictions in Germany, including increasingly aggressive police arrests and investigations.

Ex-prosecutor says billions in taxpayer money has been lost to fraud

Anne Brorhilker, the managing director of the organization Finanzwende, said that a sum of €28.5 billion in taxpayer money has been lost to tax fraud by German and foreign banks.

It would be enough money to close the current gaps in the federal budget, if Brorhilker were able to get it back, as she suggests is her aim.

READ ALSO: Kindergeld and tax relief – How Germany’s planned 2025 budget could affect you

Brorhilker had been the senior public prosecutor in Cologne, working on related fraud cases, until resigning recently. She had told Westdeustcher Rundfunk (WDR) that she resigned because she was “not at all satisfied with the way financial crime is prosecuted in Germany”.

Brorhilker’s investigations have focused on “Cum-Cum” and “Cum-Ex” fraud cases, in which banks and investors basically received illegal refunds from local tax offices.

In 2015, the Federal Fiscal Court classified these transactions as inadmissible, but federal and state finance ministries had largely ignored such transactions until 2021.

The Deutschlandticket to remain ‘the €49 ticket’ until next year

The federal government is setting the course for the price of the Deutschlandticket to remain stable this year.

The cabinet initiated a necessary amendment to the Regionalisation Act which will allow unused funds from the previous year to be used for financing the ticket this year.

The states have long been demanding the federal government to follow though on its promise to do so. Some states’ transportation companies are reportedly running with huge debts due to delays in the promised funding.

READ ALSO: ‘There will be an increase’ – How much could Germany’s Deutschlandticket cost in 2025?

Regardless of the funding held over, state transport ministers have already announced a price increase for 2025.

The Green parliamentary group has announced that it will work in the budget negotiations to maintain the current price.

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel celebrated her 70th birthday

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel turned 70 on Wednesday – celebrating away from the public eye.

“The former Chancellor Dr. Merkel will spend her birthday in a private circle,” a spokeswoman told the DPA in Berlin, adding that Merkel’s “attitude regarding personal inquiries has not changed”.

Merkel was well-known for refusing to provide any personal information during her active time in politics.

Congratulations came from many past and current politicians in Germany including former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Bavaria’s state premier Markus Söder.

Merkel was born on July 17th, 1954, in Hamburg, and grew up in Templin, Brandenburg, in the former GDR. She studied physics at the University of Leipzig before going into politics.

In her 16 years as Chancellor she faced a series of major crises including: the financial and banking crisis, the euro crisis, the refugee crisis, the climate crisis and the Corona crisis.

Merkel’s memoir titled ‘Freedom: Memories 1954-2021’ is scheduled to be released later this year. 

Wirecard accounting chief admits ‘mistakes’ in fraud trial

Wirecard’s former top accountant spoke Wednesday for the first time in the ongoing trial into the $2 billion fraud scandal that brought down the German payments firm and acknowledged making mistakes.

Stephan von Erffa said he sometimes felt overwhelmed in the job but rebuffed the accusations made against him by prosecutors.

“I had a lot on my plate…” von Erffa said at a court in Munich. “I see that unfortunately I made mistakes that I regret.”

But the 49-year-old insisted that he had never used his position to enrich himself and sought to play down his role at the scandal-hit firm.

“I never took part in board meetings,” von Erffa said.

READ ALSO: Ex-Wirecard CEO starts trial over ‘unparalleled’ fraud

Wirecard imploded spectacularly in June 2020 after it was forced to admit that €1.9 billion ($2.1 billion) in cash, meant to be sitting in trustee accounts in Asia, did not actually exist.

The firm’s Austrian-born former CEO Markus Braun has been in the dock since December alongside von Erffa and Oliver Bellenhaus, the former head of Wirecard’s Dubai subsidiary.

Prosecutors allege the trio invented revenue streams with third-party companies to inflate Wirecard’s accounts and make the loss-making company appear profitable.

With reporting by DPA and Paul Krantz.