The public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf has stopped investigations into board members of an Aldi Nord family foundation. Another family member had reported his relatives for infidelity after paying out funds to the board members. “In our view, there is no criminal liability here,” said a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office on Thursday. The offense of breach of trust is not fulfilled, since there is no breach of duty. There is also no intent. The spokesman thus confirmed information from the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. According to the authority, it had been investigating for almost two years.
As the newspaper reported, citing legal circles, it was about an allegation of infidelity in the millions against two daughters of a deceased corporate heir and their family lawyer. In essence, it was about profit distributions from one of the three family foundations of the Aldi Nord group, wrote the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”.
The public prosecutor’s office had drawn a different conclusion after lengthy investigations, the newspaper wrote. The foundation statutes provide for the promotion of the Aldi group, but on the other hand the foundation should ensure a reasonable livelihood for the beneficiaries from the family line of the heir. How high that should be specifically is not defined. Consequently, no damage and thus no act of infidelity is recognizable, according to the reasoning.
Aldi Nord is one of the largest food retailers in Germany. The company, originally founded by Theo Albrecht, is now owned by three family foundations: the Markus, Lukas and Jakobus foundations. Large investments and important decisions can only be approved unanimously by the foundations. (dpa)