Bundesbank President Quits Amid Scandal

Bundesbank President Ernst Welteke quit in a furious row with the German government amid new reports that he accepted gifts, but he defiantly accused Berlin of hurting the central bank by pressuring him to leave.

Carmaker BMW confirmed reports that it invited Welteke, a member of the European Central Bank’s policymaking council, to watch the Formula One Grand Prix in Monte Carlo in 2003, and that he had spent a night aboard a private yacht it had chartered.

Friday’s reports of his Monte Carlo stay were set to plunge Welteke deeper into controversy after he had been forced to take a leave of absence last week for letting Dresdner Bank pay a $9,437 hotel bill for him and his family.