German prosecutors brought bribery and corruption charges against four people on Monday, including two former lawmakers suspected of receiving bribes from Azerbaijan in exchange for voting in Baku’s favor at the Council of Europe, OCCRP reports.
Axel Fischer and Eduard Lintner were members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and were implicated in what became known as the Azerbaijan Laundromat -- a EU-wide lobbying and money-laundering scheme revealed by OCCRP in 2017. Azerbaijan used this so-called “caviar diplomacy” to influence European policy.
Baku used a secret US$2.9 billion slush fund to, among other things, offer free trips and expensive gifts to European MPs who would, for example, vote in Baku’s favor and beautify PACE’s human rights reports at a time when the country threw dozens of political prisoners in jail.
The investigation conducted and published by OCCRP and the Süddeutsche Zeitung exposed Lintner and a third PACE member, Karin Strenz, as those who benefited from the tactic. Strenz died unexpectedly in 2021, but prosecutors announced their intention to confiscate the bribes she allegedly received. Fischer was later identified by German prosecutors in 2021.
Prosecutors in Munich also charged Lintner's son, who is said to have helped behind the scenes and made transfers, as well as a former employee of Lintner and Strenz. Neither responded to questions from the German magazine Der Spiegel.
“In the end, these proceedings will trigger a chain reaction,” the head of the Bundestag's Council of Europe delegation, Frank Schwabe, told the magazine. “After all, these three are just part of a German and European corruption network surrounding Azerbaijan."
The Munich prosecution office is also investigating Azerbaijani ex-MP Elkhan Suleymanov. He ran a Baku-based NGO through which the payments were made and is believed to be the one who recruited Fischer. Suleymanov did not respond to questions from OCCRP and Der Spiegel.
