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Deutsche Post CEO’s home and office raided

Deutsche Post, Germany’s former mail carrier monopoly, now the world’s largest logistics group, confirmed on Thursday that CEO Klaus Zumwinkel is being investigated by prosecutors and his offices have been searched. The public prosecutor’s office is investigating whether or not the high powered business man has evaded taxes by placing €10 million in Liechtenstein.

Published: 14 February 2008 16:27 CET

“We don’t know anything,” said a spokesperson for the police. ZDF, a German broadcaster, reported that the raids in the company headquarters and at Zumwinkel’s house began at simultaneously 7am. The operation was secretly planned for weeks, according to reports.

A former McKinsey consultant, Zumwinkel is one of the longest serving CEOs in Germany. Having been at the helm of Deutsche Post for 19 years, Zumwinkel oversaw the company’s privatization and global expansion. He also is on the advisory board of Deutsche Telekom and Postbank.

German police swoop on gang of foreign dating scammers

The Black Axe gang was involved internationally in “multiple areas of criminal activity”, with a focus in Germany on romance scams and money-laundering, Bavarian police said in a statement.

The dating trick was a “modern form of marriage fraud”, police said.

“Using false identities, the fraudsters for example signalled their intention to marry and in the course of further contact repeatedly demand money under various pretexts,” police said.

The money was subsequently transferred to Black Axe in Nigeria “via financial agents”, authorities said.

In the process, the gang used a “commodity-based money laundering” scheme where products, often with a seeming “charitable purpose” were bought and delivered to Nigeria.

Some 450 cases of romance scamming had been reported in the region of Bavaria in 2023 alone, with the damages rising to 5.3 million euros ($5.7 million), police said.

The suspects, who all held Nigerian citizenship and were aged between 29 and 53, were arrested in nationwide raids on Tuesday.

Law enforcement swooped on 19 properties, including both homes and asylum shelters, police said.

The Black Axe gang had “strict hierarchical structures under leadership in Nigeria” operating different territorial units, police said.

The group had a “significant influence” on politics and public administrations, in particular in Nigeria.

Globally, the gang’s main areas of operation were “human-trafficking, fraud, money-laundering, prostitution and drug-trafficking”.

Black Axe operated under the cover of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, an ostensibly charitable organisation used as “camouflage” for the gang’s structures.

The action against Black Axe was the first of its kind in Germany, police said.

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