Translated from German:
New developments in the Cum-Ex scandal! Two laptops containing several hundred thousand e-mails are said to have disappeared from the safe of the committee of inquiry. The SPD's chief investigator appears to play a special role in this.
Two laptops containing more than 700,000 emails have disappeared from the Hamburg committee of inquiry into the so-called cum-ex scandal. According to information from "Stern" and the "Westfälische Allgemeine Zeitung" (WAZ), the chief investigator appointed by the SPD, Steffen Jänicke, of all people, is said to have removed the sensitive evidence from the safe in the security room of the committee of inquiry and hidden it.
The missing emails include mailboxes belonging to Olaf Scholz's office manager Jeanette Schwamberger, Hamburg's First Mayor Peter Tschentscher and other top officials.
Laptop with emails from Scholz's office manager disappears
MPs on the committee of inquiry are hoping that the evidence will provide new insights into the role of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the cum-ex affair at Hamburg private bank M.M. Warburg. After months of tug-of-war, the Ministry of Justice in North Rhine-Westphalia transferred the laptops with the emails that were seized as part of the cum-ex investigation to Hamburg at the beginning of October.
"We don't know where the devices are and whether they are safe at the location," criticized Richard Seelmaecker, CDU chairman of the Hamburg investigative committee. According to research by "Stern" and "WAZ", Jänicke removed the laptops from the safe in the committee's strictly secured file room. It is unclear where Jänicke took the laptops.
SPD man remains silent on accusations - opposition is "highly surprised" by the incident
The question is whether he violated the committee's rules on maintaining confidentiality, which state: "The files and other documents are to be kept in file and reading rooms to be determined by the working staff in the respective building." It is also unclear why he removed the laptops from the safe - only selected members of the working group have access to it anyway.
"We are extremely surprised by this handling of sensitive data," says Left Party chairman Norbert Hackbusch. When asked, committee chairman Mathias Petersen (SPD) asserted that the laptops were kept "in the working group in compliance with confidentiality regulations". Jänicke did not respond to an inquiry.
