US investments: Bavarian provide chamber gambled away lots of of tens of millions of euros – now there’s a threat of lawsuits | EUROtoday

In Germany, anybody who doesn’t pay into the statutory pension fund should make different provisions for the time after their working life. Pension funds are chargeable for individuals who work in freelance professions. Deposits are managed there and the capital must be elevated by investments which can be as risk-free as potential. But that is precisely the place the Bavarian Supply Chamber (BVK) speculated massively.

As WELT AM SONNTAG reported final September, the chamber gambled away with US investments. She is claimed to have invested round 1.6 billion euros in actual property initiatives that developed far much less effectively than anticipated. These embody prestigious objects in Manhattan and Miami in addition to the well-known Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, one of many landmarks of the Californian coastal metropolis. For 2024 alone, greater than 160 million euros needed to be written off on an 800 million euro funding – a sum that, in accordance with the corporate, may presumably rise to 690 million euros.

In response, the BVK has tightened its compliance pointers. The firm has now separated from the accountable actual property supervisor, who in flip had maintained contact with the US actual property developer Michael Shvo. Shvo had already run afoul of US legislation over tax points. The BVK apparently seen this too late.

However, in accordance with a report within the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ), the chamber is now threatened with new hassle. Tenants and consumers of the failed US actual property initiatives have now filed a lawsuit in opposition to Michael Shvo and BVK within the USA and are demanding compensation. The plaintiff’s lawyer within the USA is, of all individuals, a former lawyer for Donald Trump.

And in accordance with media studies, Shvo himself has additionally filed a declare in opposition to the BVK within the USA as a result of he’s allegedly nonetheless owed charges of $85 million. According to “SZ” from the BVK, no lawsuit has been served but and due to this fact they don’t seem to be commenting on it.

But there are nonetheless extra important questions looming. The two well-known attorneys Peter Mattel and Stephan Greger, who additionally tried to make clear Wirecard, are stated to have based a “interest group for pension funds” in Bavaria. She ought to due to this fact request additional details about these and different offers as a way to sue the BVK for damages in case of doubt.

Greger had already submitted a catalog of 40 inquiries to the BVK in September, to which, in his opinion, he acquired insufficient solutions. In the reply letter, which is on the market to the “SZ”, the BVK emphasizes that the “independent investigation of the facts is the BVK’s top priority”. The “responsible handling” of the funds can be the “topmost duty”.

Bavarian Interior Ministry denies accountability

The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior beneath Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU), which appoints the board of administrators of the BVK and has to approve the marketing strategy together with the funding plan, denies accountability. In the current case, there was no “supervisory responsibility” and there have been no risk-free investments, the SZ quoted the corporate as saying. The Munich public prosecutor’s workplace was contacted by the BVK and initiated preliminary investigations. Processes have additionally been modified to stop comparable instances sooner or later.

The Bavarian Supply Chamber is among the largest public pension funds in Germany with investments price round 117 billion euros. It takes care of round 2.7 million insured individuals, a lot of whom are docs or attorneys.