German Ex-Minister Kanther Sentenced Over Illegal Party Funding

[Kellanved]

April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Former German Interior Minister Manfred Kanther, a one-time member of Helmut Kohl's cabinet, was given a suspended prison sentence of 1 1/2 years for breach of trust over illegal party funding.

After eight months of hearings, the Wiesbaden Regional Court today found Kanther, 65, guilty of diverting 10.6 million euros from the Christian Democratic Union party's Hesse division to fund election campaigns between August 1995 and January 2000 without the knowledge of the party's executive.

The undisclosed money in the Hesse branch was part of a wider funding scandal in 2000 that erupted after Kohl admitted accepting cash from anonymous donors without registering it in the party's 1998 accounts as required by party finance laws. The crisis forced Kohl to resign as CDU's honorary chairman and Wolfgang Schaeuble to step down as chairman. It also resulted in the party's opinion poll ratings plummeting to an all-time low.

Under German law, parties have to disclose the origin of their finances and how the money is used. Germany gives state aid each year to parties based on the number of votes in elections and the income from membership fees and donations after the party has submitted a statement of account.

...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000100&sid=aAI9usXTQ.W8&refer=germany