By Michael Sauerbier
Police and prosecutors searched the RBB executive floor on Saturday. The aim of the surprising raid: documents from the fired director Patricia Schlesinger (61).
“From 9:30 a.m. we searched the management area on the 13th floor of the RBB building on Masurenallee with a search warrant from the Tiergarten district court,” said senior public prosecutor Sebastian Büchner to the BZ, “A colleague from the public prosecutor’s office was on site . Three boxes of papers were confiscated, which are now being evaluated.”
The raid comes as a surprise, because: At the beginning of the investigation, the RBB had declared that it would voluntarily release all documents. But then the suspicion arose that the station had not passed everything on to the investigators.
RBB continues to block press inquiries about consultancy contracts and alleged working lunches by the fired director. Not a trace of transparency and enlightenment.
Prosecutor Büchner: “The search also involved Ms. Schlesinger’s private documents, whose rooms had been sealed after her dismissal.”
The prosecutors had initially initiated investigations against Schlesinger, her husband Gerhard Spoerl and the former RBB board chief Wolf-Dieter Wolf because of accepting advantages. Wolf denies that.
The suspicion: Wolf is said to have brokered lucrative consulting contracts for an acquaintance in the planning of RBB’s “Digital Media House” (DMH). The costs of the prestige building DMH had exploded from 65 million euros to 185 million euros in a short time. More than 6 million euros have already been spent on planning. The project is now on hold.
In return, Schlesinger’s husband Spoerl received orders from Messe Berlin worth around 140,000 euros, whose supervisory board Wolf chaired.
In the meantime, more and more allegations against the former director have surfaced. From luxury trips at the expense of the broadcaster to allegedly false food bills in your Zehlendorf private apartment and in Berlin’s noble restaurants.
Prosecutor Büchner on the BZ: “The evaluation of the documents will show where there may still be criminal acts.”