BERLIN — A district chapter of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU) received €28,000 ($33,114) from the state-run Azerbaijani oil and gas company Socar in contravention of German rules on party donations, a consortium of public broadcasters NDR, Deutsche Welle reported.
According to the report, two payments, one of €3,000 and one of €25,000, were deposited by Socar’s Germany-based branch on the account of the CDU’s district association in Frankfurt at the end of February 2012.
Although the district CDU branch accepted the donation without question, auditors at party headquarters in Berlin notified the Administration of the German Bundestag, which decided as early as autumn 2013 that the gift was not allowable under the law. The CDU then gave up the donation to be immediately impounded, the report said.
However, despite having broken the law, the party will not have to pay a fine, largely owing to a ruling made by an administrative court in April that self-denunciation in such cases can not only mitigate penalties, but even avert them altogether.
YEREVAN -- The new owner of Armenia’s Teghut copper-molybdenum mine is a U.S. company headed…
TBILISI -- Georgia has special relations with its three neighboring countries—Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey—and deepening…
YEREVAN -- Armenia’s State Revenue Committee has released new details concerning an investigation into alleged…
WASHINGTON, DC -- The World Bank has warned that if Russia continues and expands restrictions…
ATHENS -- A new television adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey is set to begin filming across Greece and Armenia in…
YEREVAN -- The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute is hosting its annual educational training program for American…