Last major indictment filed in the "Elsflether Werft AG" investigation

Fraud in eleven cases, including the "Gorch Fock" case

The Osnabrück public prosecutor's office announced in a press release dated 2 September 2022 that charges of fraud in a particularly serious case to the detriment of the Wilhelmshaven naval arsenal have been brought against two former board members of Elsflether Werft AG.

With the comprehensive indictment, the public prosecutor's office accuses two former board members of Elsflether Werft AG (EW AG) of commercial fraud in a particularly serious case to the detriment of the naval arsenal in Wilhelmshaven (MArs). Between 2014 and 2018, the two men are alleged to have been responsible for EW AG systematically issuing incorrect invoices to MArs for third-party services provided by subcontractors, whereby one of the accused is only accused of failing to prevent this despite being aware of the invoicing practice due to his function within the management board structure.

The indictment covers a total of 11 repair projects of EW AG, including the repair of the sail training ship "Gorch Forck", in each of which credit notes or reduced invoices were deliberately not properly forwarded to MArs and thus overpayments were allegedly made by employees of MArs to EW AG.

MArs - i.e. the federal government - has thus suffered a loss of 7,204,502.27 euros were incurred. The other individual losses amount to between approx. 48,000 euros and approx. 1.6 million euros, with only 247,317.28 euros relating to the repair of the training sailing ship "Gorch Fock". False timesheets alone are said to have caused damage totalling over 135,000 euros.

If convicted, the two men face a prison sentence of between 6 months and 10 years. The Oldenburg Regional Court must now decide whether to open the main proceedings.

With this last major indictment from the "Gorch Fock" investigation, the joint work of the law enforcement authorities, which has been ongoing since December 2018, is coming to an end. Over the past few years, the "Wasser" special commission set up at the Oldenburg Central Criminal Investigation Department, consisting of 15 police officers, has examined and analysed over 14 terabytes of data and 1,450 files. At the Osnabrück public prosecutor's office, up to four public prosecutors and an economic officer were involved in the proceedings at the same time.