The Frankfurt Regional Court has sentenced senior public prosecutor Alexander B., who was accused of corruption allegations, to six years in prison. The fifty-five-year-old, who is suspended from duty, had been arrested in the summer of 2020 and later charged on suspicion of commercial bribery, embezzlement and tax evasion. Since then, he has been in custody, with an interruption of a few months. For many years, B. was press spokesman for the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office and headed the "Central Office for Combating Property Crimes and Corruption in Health Care", which he initiated. On Friday before the verdict, the state announced its intention to take recourse against B.

Anna-Sophia Lang

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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During the trial, he had admitted that he had spent years earning money from the company of a friend who prepared expert opinions for the proceedings against doctors and pharmacists conducted by B.'s central office. According to his own calculations, since 2010 he has earned about 500,000 euros in bribes from this and another company. He initially had a one-third share in the profits of his friend's company, and later two-thirds. The defendant is the non-statute-barred period between 2015 and 2020. According to the prosecutors, B. obtained a total of around 350,000 euros in bribes.

B. contradicted the allegations of infidelity

Prosecutors requested a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence. From their point of view, not only the offence of bribery is fulfilled, but also of embezzlement. They are of the opinion that the Chief Public Prosecutor, in his function as head of the Central Office, had a duty to look after assets vis-à-vis the State of Hesse. He had therefore made himself liable to prosecution by marking invoices paid from the state treasury by the two companies as factually correct and instructing their payment.

This also included ancillary activities such as the creation of files or the copying or scanning of documents, which were remunerated according to the rates for experts. In addition, employees of the companies had written parts of indictments. B. denied the acts of embezzlement at the trial. He had trusted that only services actually provided would be invoiced. He admitted, however, that the employees wrote indictments.

The defense argued against a conviction also for embezzlement and requested a prison sentence of no more than four years. She argued that he had no duty to look after assets, but that his core task was no different from that of any other prosecutor. From the lawyers' point of view, the inadequate supervision within the General Prosecutor's Office and the Hessian Ministry of Justice must be taken into account as a mitigating factor.

The defence lawyers of B.'s friend, who was co-accused of bribery, requested a prison sentence of no more than two years. The public prosecutor's office had demanded three and a half years. B. said in the last word that his actions were inexcusable. He will rightly carry a stigma for the rest of his life and deeply regret what he has done. He takes full responsibility. He asked the court to impose a sentence that still offered him a perspective.