Walther Kiep

Walther Kiep   (politician, financial fraudster, perjurer)
Born	Walther Gottlieb Louis Leisler Kiep 1926-01-05 Hamburg, Germany
Died	2016-05-09 (Age 90) Kronberg im Taunus, Germany
Nationality	German
Criminal charge	tax evasion
Children	4
Spouse	Charlotte Kiep
Member of	American Council on Germany/Young Leaders/1986, Atlantik-Brücke
Party	CDU
Politician, financial fraudster, perjurer, attended 4 Bilderbergs from 1974 to 1980  Atlantik-Brücke/Chairman In office 1984 - 2000 Preceded by Karl Klasen Succeeded by Arend Oetker

Walther Kiep was Chairman of the Atlantik-Brücke from 1984 to 2000.

Background

Walther Kiep's father was an adviser to the Turkish Government in 1930. His family has historical ties to the United States. A direct ancestor is Jacob Leisler, the first Governor of New York (1689- 1691). His uncle, the German Consul General in New York for Weimar Germany until 1933, later joined the resistance and was executed in 1944 by the Nazis after the July 20th attempt on Hitler's life.

Treasurer of the CDU and scandals

Kiep served as federal treasurer of the CDU from 1971 to 1992. During his tenure, the party was involved in several financial scandals. Shortly after taking over, Kiep brought in economist Uwe Lüthje as general agent and public accountant Horst Weyrauch as a financial consultant. Together, the three started an elaborate system aimed at accumulating funding for the party. The Staatsbürgerliche Vereinigung 1954 e.V. (de) was used by major companies to donate money to the CDU anonymously, while the donations were fully tax deductible due to the Vereinigung being considered non-profit. Just in the election year 1972, 30 million Deutsche Mark are said to have been accumulated in this fashion. Over the course of its existence, the Vereinigung gave 214 million Deutsche Marks to political parties between 1969 and 1980. The procedure was made public during the uncovering of the Flick affair in the early 1980s. Kiep was ultimately accused of having amassed 18.5 million Deutsche Marks in illegal donations for the CDU, evading nine million Deutsche Marks in taxes. For his role, he was sentenced to a payment of 675,000 Deutsche Marks in 1991, but the verdict was revoked a year later by the Federal Court of Justice.

In 1995, the public prosecution department of the city of Augsburg obtained the calendars of Karlheinz Schreiber, a German arms dealer. With the help of the documents, the persecutors were able to decipher a code of aliases and money movements which lead to Kiep. On 4 November 1999, the prosecution office issued an arrest warrant against Kiep, charging him with having accepted a payment of one million Deutsche Marks from Schreiber in 1991 without subjecting the money to taxes. After turning himself in a day later, Kiep declared during his interrogation that he had accepted the money, with Horst Weyrauch present, as a donation for the CDU. This started the CDU donations scandal, in which a system of illegal accounts was uncovered. On 30 November, former German chancellor Helmut Kohl took full responsibility for the accounts and later admitted to having personally accepted a total sum of up to two million Deutsche Marks from anonymous sponsors, which were not declared. As a consequence of the illegal proceedings, the CDU was sentenced to a payment of 41 million Deutsche Marks by President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Thierse on 15 February 2000. In another trial in 2001, he was sentenced to pay 45,000 Deutsche Marks. In early 2004, Kiep accepted a sentence of 40,500 Euro for a false statement given at the enquiry commission on the donations scandal.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1974	19 April 1974	21 April 1974	France Hotel Mont d' Arbois Megève	The 23rd Bilderberg, held in France
Bilderberg/1975	25 April 1975	27 April 1975	Turkey Golden Dolphin Hotel Cesme	The 24th Bilderberg Meeting, 98 guests
Bilderberg/1977	22 April 1977	24 April 1977	United Kingdom Imperial Hotel Torquay	The 25th Bilderberg, held in Torquay, England.
Bilderberg/1980	18 April 1980	20 April 1980	Germany Aachen	The 28th Bilderberg, held in West Germany, unusually exposed by the Daily Mirror

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.