Slush Fund Probe Moves Beyond Kohl

For the first time since allegations surfaced three months ago that the party of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl kept secret slush funds, a cloud of suspicion spread Monday over Kohl’s successor as leader of the Christian Democratic Union, Wolfgang Schaeuble.

Politicians from the governing coalition of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder demanded in newspaper interviews to know what happened to about $600,000 in cash withdrawn in 1997 from a party bank account under Schaeuble’s control.

The internal transaction was never accounted for in Kohl’s annual financial statements on behalf of the party, but it appears among documents provided by the party, known as the CDU, for an independent audit, German media reported.

The cash transfer is just one of several alleged financial irregularities during Kohl’s 25-year tenure as CDU chief. But as the first to bear Schaeuble’s fingerprints, it could undermine the new leadership’s strategy of sidestepping the political damage by distancing itself from Kohl.

While several top CDU figures have demanded that Kohl disclose his secret donors to spare the party further embarrassment, Schaeuble has said little about the behavior of Kohl, his mentor. Schaeuble’s silence had been interpreted as loyalty to Kohl, but political opponents now suspect that he was not only aware of Kohl’s wrongdoing, but may have been involved.

The latest development in the scandal that has dogged the CDU since October coincided with the official start Monday of a criminal investigation of Kohl’s handling of party finances.

Federal prosecutors notified Parliament on Wednesday that they were seeking suspension of Kohl’s parliamentary immunity to probe the allegations--a move that Parliament speaker Wolfgang Thierse could have blocked within 48 hours but didn’t. Like many public figures, Thierse has said a full airing of the CDU affair is needed to protect Germany’s democratic credentials.

The incident ensnaring Schaeuble involved the closing of a CDU parliamentary account that had been a repository for dues levied on the party’s members of Parliament. The money--the equivalent of about five years of dues from the CDU legislators--was believed by the CDU’s political opponents to have been deposited in Kohl’s slush fund in violation of political party financing rules. Schaeuble was head of the CDU parliamentary faction at the time of the transaction.

Meanwhile, the party disclosed in a revised financial report for 1998 that it was setting aside about $3.8 million to cover potential fines and delinquent taxes on the contributions allegedly hidden by Kohl.

The 69-year-old former chancellor, whose reputation as a great European statesman has been badly tarnished by the allegations, has admitted accepting donations, which is illegal if not publicly reported. However, he has refused to identify the sources, claiming he gave the party’s benefactors his “word of honor.”