German man locked up over HVB bank allegations may have been telling truth
Gustl Mollath was put in a psychiatric unit for claiming his wife was involved in money-laundering at the Bavarian bank. But seven years on evidence has emerged that could set him free
Kate Connolly in Berlin
A German man committed to a high-security psychiatric hospital after being accused of fabricating a story of money-laundering activities at a major bank is to have his case reviewed after evidence has emerged proving the validity of his claims.
In a plot worthy of a crime blockbuster, Gustl Mollath, 56, was submitted to the secure unit of a psychiatric hospital seven years ago after court experts diagnosed him with paranoid personality disorder following his claims that staff at the Hypo Vereinsbank (HVB) – including his wife, then an assets consultant at HVB – had been illegally smuggling large sums of money into Switzerland.
Mollath was tried in 2006 after his ex-wife accused him of causing her physical harm. He denied the charges, claiming she was trying to sully his name in the light of the evidence he allegedly had against her. He was admitted to the clinic, where he has remained against his will ever since.
But recent evidence brought to the attention of state prosecutors shows that money-laundering activities were indeed practiced over several years by members of staff at the Munich-based bank, the sixth-largest private financial institute in Germany, as detailed in an internal audit report carried out by the bank in 2003. The report, which has now been posted online, detailed illegal activities including money-laundering and aiding tax evasion. A number of employees, including Mollath's wife, were subsequently sacked following the bank's investigation.
The “Mollath affair”, as it has been dubbed by the German media, has taken on such political dimensions that it now threatens to bring down the government of Bavaria. Under the weight of public and political pressure Horst Seehofer, the prime minister of the rich southern state and a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU) – the sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats – has now called for the case to be reopened, amid charges that Mollath was possibly the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice.
Phi Beta Iota: When CIA does not like an employee's attitude about what they are doing, the employee is sent to a “fitness for duty” physical with a strong emphasis on finding them psychologically unstable as a means of forcing them to resign in lieu of action. Now CIA is pressing across the USG to establish “negative reciprocity” so that victims of its “Star Chamber” management abuse can begin to ruin the lives of those that escaped CIA insanity and found gainful employment elsewhere in the USG and in the contracting world (the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals is the least competent and the least ethical among the various adjudicating authorities, and the most in need of an immediate deep audit by the DoD Inspector General for Intelligence and Special Programs. We speculate that CIA is now starting to feel the push-back from decades of smart ethical former employees finding work elsewhere, earning the trust of their employees, and now suggesting to their employers that most of what CIA does is neither real nor necessary. The fact is that lower-level employees asking questions is an ethical manager's or ethical oversight authority's first warning layer. If abusive practices are allowed to silence the loyal dissent, the bad practices “hole” merely gets deeper. Yes, the truth shall set you free BUT you have to WANT the truth and be willing to embrace the truth. That is where Industrial Era legacy hierarchies fail. The USA prison-industrial complex that creates slaves for commerce also has a very broad asylum-industrial complex where too many have been illegally and immorally committed for the “convenience” of those with power who find the truth an obstacle to their profits and pleasures….and of course the US Government elements that abuse truth-tellers end up betraying the public trust more deeply and broadly than ever before.
