The AfD threatened in the course of the Swiss donation scandal sensitive fines of the Bundesbank of up to 120,000 euros. Like the F.A.Z. was confirmed in party circles on Thursday, it missed the AfD district of Lake Constance to report the transfers of illegal party donations from and to Switzerland the Bundesbank. The AFD parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel did not want to comment on this as addressee of the party donation and justified this with the pending investigation of the public prosecutor’s office Konstanz. She said that the allegations against her were „not justified“. Their spokesman said the lawyers of the party considered the allegation. Baden-Wurttemberg state chairman Ralf Özkara told F.A.Z. that his state board was not aware of any reports of transactions to the Bundesbank; in party circles it was confirmed that the reports did not occur.
According to the Foreign Trade Regulation, transfers from and to foreign countries must be reported to the Bundesbank if the amount exceeds EUR 12,500. The Bundesbank uses these reports to prepare its balance of payments. The weekly denomination of the Swiss party donations to the AfD was according to media reports in each case about 7850 euros from July to September 2017, so was below the reporting limit. According to the Bundesbank, however, the decisive factor is the amount calculated over the entire month. Accordingly, the AfD would have violated the reporting requirements in up to three consecutive months, in which a respective report would have been necessary. Any failure to report is punishable by a fine of up to € 30,000 under the Foreign Trade Act, so a fine of three months for receipt and the month of remittance of the donation to Switzerland could amount to up to € 120,000.
The same could apply to the illegal donation from Belgium made by the AfD on the night of Thursday. Accordingly, the amount of 150,000 euros went into the account of the AfD district association Bodensee in February, which was returned to the legal examination.
