After the toll debacle: trial against former German minister

The Berlin public prosecutor’s office accuses the 51-year-old of lying to the Bundestag’s toll investigation committee. The former State Secretary is co-accused Gerhard Schulz. The former CSU minister rejects the accusation. The former state secretary also denies the accusation, according to consistent statements from the defense and public prosecutor’s office.

It is still unclear when the trial before the Commercial Criminal Chamber will begin. The court is still in consultation with those involved, as the court spokeswoman announced.

That’s what the indictment is about

The car toll – a prestige project of the CSU in the then black-red German government – was stopped as illegal by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in June 2019. An investigative committee then looked into Scheuer’s possible mistakes.

The committee began its work in December 2019 and completed it in summer 2021. The main criticism was that Scheuer concluded operator contracts for car tolls at the end of 2018, even before there was final legal certainty at the ECJ.

According to the indictment, Scheuer and Schulz are said to have made “deliberate false statements” during their questioning in the committee. When asked by members of parliament whether the operator had offered at a meeting on November 29, 2018 to only sign the contracts after the ECJ decision, both said “contrary to their actual recollection that they could not remember such an offer to postpone,” according to the public prosecutor’s office.

This is how the investigation came about

The public prosecutor’s office announced at the beginning of May 2022 that it had initiated an investigation against Scheuer and the former Transport State Secretary Schulz in April on suspicion of making false statements in the Bundestag investigative committee.

According to the authorities, the basis was several criminal complaints from private individuals. There was an initial suspicion that Scheuer and Schulz had made “deliberately untruthful” statements during a witness statement, it was said at the time. Scheuer resigned from his Bundestag mandate in April 2024. He has now founded a consulting firm.

The state has to pay 243 million euros

As a result of the toll debacle, the German state had to pay 243 million euros in compensation to the intended operators. This was a joint venture between the Austrian toll system provider Kapsch TrafficCom and the German ticket provider CTS Eventim. In 2023 there was an agreement in arbitration proceedings.