She was the focus of the RBB affair, which also employed some lawyers: ex-director Patricia Schlesinger. picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Brita Pedersen
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) stopped the internal investigation into the affair involving ex-director Patricia Schlesinger by a law firm this week.
The head of the board of directors justified the step, among other things, with the “enormous costs”, which had totaled more than 1.6 million euros by April.
Business Insider shows that the public broadcaster’s legal fees are significantly higher. Because the RBB also employed experts in labor law, criminal law and a well-known media lawyer to clarify the affair.
The end came suddenly. Lawyers from the Lutz Abel law firm for Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) tracked the affair surrounding ex-director Patricia Schlesinger for a good year. They allegedly viewed 17,000 documents about dinner at the fired broadcaster’s boss, her trips, company cars, bonus payments.
There was an interim report, most recently a summary of the preliminary findings, and the internal investigation was ongoing. Until the board of directors surprisingly stopped the compliance check in a long meeting last Tuesday evening.
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“In view of the parallel investigations by the state audit offices, the public prosecutor’s office and internal auditing and the enormous costs, we consider a continuation of the investigation to be unjustifiable,” said Benjamin Ehlers, the new head of the control committee. Lutz Abel billed the public broadcaster more than 1.6 million euros for its educational work up until April.
The compliance officer of the RBB had mandated the law firm after the first allegations against Schlesinger became known. The Board of Directors agreed. Dorette König, meanwhile at the head of the committee, responded to critical questions about the expensive investigations at the expense of the contributors last January that the test assignment was formulated “deliberately very broadly”. You can’t rule out anythingsaid König at the time.
According to the specialist portal “Juve“ For Lutz Abel it was the first internal investigation of this magnitude. That is why it is said to have caused astonishment in the industry that the compliance officer invited the commercial law firm to pitch, according to the report. The fact that the order would cost more than 1.6 million euros was apparently not foreseeable for those responsible, as internal minutes can be seen. Last reported RBB 24the assignment was freehand and not documented, due to “time pressure”, as the broadcaster said.
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Lutz Abel is not the only law firm that made good money from the RBB affair. Experts in labor law, criminal law and, for a short time, the prominent media lawyer Christian Schertz also worked for the broadcaster. He advised the then RBB leadership around Schlesinger from June 29 to August 10 last year, for which he received 13,411 euros. In an internal email, his hourly rate was estimated at 500 euros plus VAT.
The RBB spent at least 483,000 euros on employment lawyers
The board of directors involved the lawyers von Morgen & Partner, who specialize in employment law. The interim director Katrin Vernau also relied on her services. According to an internal statement, the labor lawyers calculated around 260,000 euros by January 10th. At the end of May, the station boss gave the costs at 483,000 euros, reported the “Southgerman newspaper“. Vernau took advice from the lawyers when it came to the possible expulsion of directors. Because the high-ranking managers of the station were all entitled to lavish pensions.
Vernau said when she took office that her goal was not to “increase the number of those who used to be in RBB management positions and are currently earning a salary without a job”. But she also made it clear: “Anyone who is guilty of something must also expect the corresponding consequences.” The experts should base themselves on the results of Lutz Abel. In fact, after this announcement, three directors were dismissed without notice and two went to the labor court.
The criminal law experts cost around 195,000 euros
With the renowned law firm Krause & Colleagues, RBB also brought in criminal law experts in July 2022. Between August and October last year, they are said to have examined the accusations that the broadcaster represented as potentially injured. Because the Berlin public prosecutor’s office began investigations against Schlesinger, and later against other executives. By the end of May around 195,000 euros in legal fees had been collected, according to the SZ, citing Vernau.
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RBB’s legal fees cannot yet be quantified precisely, as there are no more recent figures. However, one thing is certain: if you add up the known fees, they have long since exceeded the two million euro mark. According to an SZ report, Vernau also conceded this to the workforce, who are struggling with savings targets. The costs far exceed the amount at which the broadcaster last estimated the damage caused by Schlesinger. According to research by Business Insider, the old board of directors decided in March to assert an amount of 240,000 euros in the legal dispute over the ex-director’s pension claims. RBB had previously filed a counterclaim for an amount of EUR 30,000.
This article was published on July 16, 2023. It was revised on July 18 and additional numbers were added.
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