German MP And Others Got Stones Ticket For Cheap Rent

The corruption scandal around hundreds of tickets for a Rolling Stones concert that were handed to politicians allegedly in exchange for cheap rent at a German city park has widened to include 52 people.

The allegations have caused outrage in Germany not just because of the politicians cashing in on freebies at the expense of the taxpayer, but also because of the fact that the high-ranking officials and politicians accused are already on substantial salaries. 

Two of the local politicians probed are on salaries of almost 12,000 GBP a month, while a local airport boss also probed was getting over half a million GBP a year.

Credit: CEN
Archive: Mick Jagger at the Hamburg concert

The probe into eight people accused of illegally accepting free tickets to watch the legendary band has now been expanded by prosecutors to 52 including the unnamed MP, according to German newspaper Bild.

The Stones concert was held in Hamburg on 9th September 2017 in a city park in the German city of Hamburg but continues to make headlines across the country.

The alleged ringleader is local district chief Harald Roesler, 69, of the social-democratic SPD party, who requested 100 free tickets and a further 300 paid tickets from the concert organiser.

Bild said that prosecutors were now investigating whether the cost for using the council-owned property, that was supposedly set at around 255,000 EUR, was a reduced price as a result of the tickets being handed over. 

Information from within the investigation that was leaked to German media indicated that the market rate would have been closer to four times that amount, with the suggestion that Rosler had intervened to have it reduced to benefit the concert organiser.

Credit: CEN
Archive: Keith Richards at the Hamburg concert

Many of those probed are officials that got their tickets through Roesler, with some of the tickets reportedly being handed out for free and others at highly discounted prices.

According to local media, the other city officials being investigated are Hamburg state councillor and urban development authority chief Matthias Kock, state councillor and transport authority chief Andreas Rieckhof, planetarium director Thomas Kraupe, labour museum director Rita Mueller, Hamburg airport managers Michael Eggenschwiler and Alexander Laukenmann, cemetery chief Carsten Helberg, and directors Wilfried Wendel and Sven Wittstock of municipal housing company SAGA.

Investigations had already been opened against state councillor Elke Badde, who was Roesler’s superior, as well as against Roesler’s elected successor Yvonne Nische.

Roesler has retired since the Rolling Stones gig.


To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

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