Deutsche Post CEO in tax probe
The CEO of Deutsche Post, which owns DHL, has been questioned by police over suspected tax evasion
Investigators have raided the home and office of Klaus Zumwinkel,
Deutsche
Post chief executive officer and one of Germany’s most influential
businessmen, and questioned him before he was released on bail.
German prosecutors said he was suspected of not paying €1m euros (£750,000)
in taxes, using banks in Lichtenstein. Zumwinkel, who led Deutsche Post since
1990 and oversaw its flotation in 2000, is not expect to have his contract
renewed when it expires later this year, BBC News reports.
A statement to investors yesterday said the entire board of directors,
including Zumwinkel, ‘is fully functional and continues its business as usual’.
A spokesman for the Social Democrats, which forms part of Germany’s governing
coalition, said that, if Zumwinkel were found guilty, he should ‘not hold his
job for one minute longer’. ‘It is beyond comprehension that a multimillionaire
like Zumwinkel found it necessary to save a couple of million euros in this
way,’ Rainer Wend told Der Spiegel magazine.