Overview
- A Munich regional court convicted two men over corrupt payments tied to the diocese’s US property deals and handed both suspended prison terms with two years’ probation.
- The former deputy finance director was sentenced to one year and four months on probation and was also found guilty of failing to declare accepted bribe income for tax purposes.
- A German real‑estate developer who worked in the United States received one year and two months on probation and was additionally convicted of breach of trust in two northern German foundation cases.
- The case grew out of roughly $60 million in speculative US property investments by the Bistum Eichstätt that did not return as planned and in which the defendants exploited governance gaps and limited financial expertise to split commissions.
- Prosecutors and the defendants reached individual negotiated agreements that led to a final settlement returning $36 million to the diocese and that the court said helped justify the milder penalties, with civil and employment actions still pending.