The chief executive of Deutsche Post AG tendered his resignation Friday in the wake of allegations that he evaded some 1 million (US$1.45 million) in taxes through investments in Liechtenstein as part of a probe of hundreds of Germans, officials said.
Finance Ministry spokesman Torsten Albig said that Klaus Zumwinkel had presented his resignation offer to a committee of the supervisory board of Deutsche Post, in which the government is the largest shareholder.
The committee was expected to accept the resignation and advise the board of the decision on Monday, he said.
"The federal government welcomes the offer of resignation," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told reporters.
Earlier, Kurt Beck, the leader of the center-left Social Democrats, whose party makes up half of Merkel's governing coalition, indicated Zumwinkel had confessed to the accusations against him.
"After _ according to my knowledge _ he admitted to the allegations, one can only say he either step down immediately or is immediately let go," Beck told reporters.
Neither Zumwinkel nor his attorney have made any public statements, and Bochum prosecutors _ who are leading the investigation _ would not confirm that a confession was made.
"We have nothing to say about that," said spokesman Bernd Bieniossek.
Prosecutors on Thursday announced that Zumwinkel's home and offices had been searched as part of an investigation of the executive.
The Zumwinkel investigation was being done as part of a probe into hundreds of cases of tax evasion related to the foundation in Liechtenstein, Bieniossek said.
The prosecutors' offices in Duesseldorf and Cologne were also part of the investigation examining financial documents, he said
"These documents concern the funds of several hundred people that were apparently established for the purpose of tax evasion, particularly through foundations based in Liechtenstein," he said.
An official close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment to the media on the matter, told The Associated Press there were some 600 to 700 other suspects.
The 64-year-old Zumwinkel "is suspected of evading about 1 million (US$1.45 million) in taxes via investments in Liechtenstein," Bieniossek said Thursday.
Zumwinkel was taken in for questioning to the Bochum prosecutors' office and after providing information and paying an undisclosed amount of surety, was released to go home, Bieniossek said.
Beck urged against showing Zumwinkel any leniency.
"I await justice," he said, adding that any deals "would, in my view, deeply contradict the people's sense of justice."
Beck's party last year supported establishing a minimum wage for postal workers, a measure widely perceived as benefiting Germany's former mail monopoly.
Zumwinkel supported the measure, ahead of the Jan. 1, 2008 opening of the German letter delivery market to all competitors of Deutsche Post.
With the introduction of the hourly minimum of between 8 (US$11.70) and 9.80 (US$14.30) for letter carriers, competitor PIN Group said it would have to lay off up to 1,000 workers.
Zumwinkel attracted criticism late last year for selling some of his own shares in Deutsche Post just as the government approved introducing the minimum wage for letter carriers.
The CEO later conceded that the timing "was wrong in the middle of an intense political discussion" that was going on at the same time over ways of curbing perceived excesses in top managers' pay.
Zumwinkel has led Deutsche Post since 1990.
He is also the chairman of Deutsche Telekom AG's supervisory board, which is the equivalent of a board of directors, and of the supervisory board of Postbank AG, Deutsche Post's banking subsidiary.
In addition, he sits on the airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG's supervisory board, and is on U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley's board of directors.
Deutsche Post shares were up 1.26 percent in afternoon Frankfurt trading to 22.53 (US$32.95).
No comments:
Post a Comment