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Former spy boss moves to Deutsche Bank

Ernst Uhrlau, former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency the BND, has been on the payroll of Germany’s biggest bank since the start of February, just two months after his retirement.

Published: 6 February 2012 10:48 CET

Former spy boss moves to Deutsche Bank

Photo: DPA

A spokesman for the bank on Sunday confirmed a report in Der Spiegel news magazine that the former intelligence chief is now working as a freelance “global risk analyst” at the bank, and that this new job had been cleared by the Ronald Pofalla, chief of staff at the German chancellery.

The 65-year-old Uhrlau retired at the end of last year, when he reached the age limit for his office at the BND. He spent six years as president of the overseas intelligence agency and was also secret service coordinator for the German government.

One of Uhrlau’s more controversial acts in office was to buy the personal data of suspected tax evaders from people who had stolen the information from foreign banks. One of the high-profile victims of the initiative was Klaus Zumwinkel, former head of Germany’s postal service Deutsche Post.

Zumwinkel was fined €1 million and handed a two year suspended sentence in 2009.

Uhrlau is not the first high-ranking government insider who has moved to the Deutsche Bank. Former deputy finance minister Caio Koch-Weser became vice-chairman of the Deutsche Bank Group in 2006.

The Local/bk

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Germany arrests Russian scientist for spying for Moscow

Vladimir Putin. Photo: dpa/AP | Patrick Semansky

Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the suspect, identified only as Ilnur N., had been taken into custody on Friday on suspicion of “working for a Russian secret service since early October 2020 at the latest”.

Ilnur N. was employed until the time of his arrest as a research assistant for a natural sciences and technology department at the unnamed German university.

German investigators believe he met at least three times with a member of Russian intelligence between October 2020 and this month. On two occasions he allegedly “passed on information from the university’s domain”.

He is suspected of accepting cash in exchange for his services.

German authorities searched his home and workplace in the course of the arrest.

The suspect appeared before a judge on Saturday who remanded him in custody.

‘Completely unacceptable’

Neither the German nor the Russian government made any immediate comment on the case.

However Moscow is at loggerheads with a number of Western capitals after a Russian troop build-up on Ukraine’s borders and a series of espionage scandals that have resulted in diplomatic expulsions.

Italy this month said it had created a national cybersecurity agency following warnings by Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Europe needed to
protect itself from Russian “interference”.

The move came after an Italian navy captain was caught red-handed by police while selling confidential military documents leaked from his computer to a Russian embassy official.

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The leaders of nine eastern European nations last month condemned what they termed Russian “aggressive acts” citing operations in Ukraine and “sabotage” allegedly targeted at the Czech Republic.

Several central and eastern European countries have expelled Russian diplomats in solidarity with Prague but Russia has branded accusations of its involvement as “absurd” and responded with tit-for-tat expulsions.

The latest espionage case also comes at a time of highly strained relations between Russia and Germany on a number of fronts including the ongoing detention of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who received treatment in Berlin after a near-fatal poisoning.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has moreover worked to maintain a sanctions regime over Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the scene of ongoing fighting between pro-Russia separatists and local forces.

And Germany has repeatedly accused Russia of cyberattacks on its soil.

The most high-profile incident blamed on Russian hackers to date was a cyberattack in 2015 that completely paralysed the computer network of the Bundestag lower house of parliament, forcing the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

German prosecutors in February filed espionage charges against a German man suspected of having passed the floor plans of parliament to Russian secret services in 2017.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas last week said Germany was expecting to be the target of Russian disinformation in the run-up to its general election in September, calling it “completely unacceptable”.

Russia denies being behind such activities.

Despite international criticism, Berlin has forged ahead with plans to finish the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, set to double natural gas supplies from Russia to Germany.

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