Overview
- Judges in Mühlhausen sentenced a 55-year-old to five years and seven months and a 52-year-old to four years for forming and belonging to the group, plus attempted coercion and attempted extortion.
- The court cited extensive counts, including roughly 180 extortion attempts and about 190 coercion attempts for the 55-year-old, and 13 of each offense for the co-defendant, alongside three tax-evasion convictions.
- Evidence showed a system of mass pseudo-legal threat letters, coordinated calls and on-site file inspections, with prosecutors saying the pair even offered intimidation letters as a paid service.
- Investigators tied the network to large tax liabilities and profit motives, reporting €6 million in unpaid taxes for the main defendant, about €500,000 in evaded taxes and indications of foreign accounts in Belgium.
- Prosecutors attribute at least one violent act to the milieu—an attack on a tax investigator’s home and car in November 2021—while stressing the verdict is not final and further cases against up to nine suspected members remain under investigation.