Company in the canton of Zug German mask supplier alleged to have evaded 12 million euros in taxes
Diplomatic ID, revolver in the glove compartment and millions from a mask deal: the S. case reads like a thriller, but is actually a tax case. At the center of the case is a dazzling businessman - and a small company in the canton of Zug.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- A Munich businessman posed as a diplomat and ended up in custody instead of in Brussels.
- At the center of the trial are millions in proceeds from masked transactions that went through a company in the canton of Zug.
- Now the court is clarifying whether the Swiss address turned into a German tax problem.
During a police check in Allgäu in May 2025, a 44-year-old man from Munich, who introduced himself to the officers as a diplomat on a business trip to Brussels, was caught. When asked for his personal details, he pulled out a diplomatic ID from the West African island state of São Tomé and Príncipe and introduced himself as Mr. S. This is how "Der Spiegel" describes it.
When the officers searched his limousine with Belgian diplomatic license plates, they found something unusual: a forged Slovenian passport - and a revolver in the locked glove compartment.
Mr. S. did not have a gun license, but the officers - having become suspicious - came across something even more incriminating: an arrest warrant from the Munich tax investigation department. The man was wanted on suspicion of tax evasion amounting to millions. The planned trip to Brussels therefore ended not in the EU quarter, but in the Munich-Stadelheim prison.
Now the trial against Mr. S begins at the Munich II Regional Court. The public prosecutor's office accuses him of evading sales tax, corporation tax, income tax and trade tax amounting to around twelve million euros (around 11.2 million Swiss francs). At the center of the case is a mask business from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tax investigation becomes active after transfer
In spring 2020, Mr S. concluded a contract with the Federal Ministry of Health under Jens Spahn via a small company in the canton of Zug. Five million FFP2 masks were to be delivered - at a time when the state was buying masks with taxpayers' money like there was no tomorrow. The situation was chaotic, warehouses were overflowing and retailers were left sitting on their masks. Some subsequently sued the Federal Ministry of Health for fulfillment of the supply contracts.
The ministry reached a settlement with Mr. S.: around 20 million euros (around 18.7 million Swiss francs) flowed into a Swiss account of the Zug-based company through which the mask business was conducted, according to Spiegel's investigations.
When a large amount was transferred to Germany, the tax investigators became suspicious. The suspicion: the Swiss company could have been merely a letterbox company, while the actual business was conducted from Munich.
If this were the case, the millions in proceeds would have had to be taxed in Germany. House searches followed, then an indictment. The question of the "place of management" is likely to become the key issue in the trial.
Plenty of talent for everything - except respectability
The question of how Mr. S. managed to secure a mask contract worth millions in the first place - and how the generous settlement with the Federal Ministry of Health ultimately came about - is likely to be just as revealing as the tax allegations. The auditing firm EY, which advised the ministry on the handling of the transactions, could be asked questions about this.
In any case, Mr. S. had little experience with medical protective equipment. Instead, he worked as a consultant to a heavyweight boxer from Cologne and later as an art investor - albeit with limited success. In 2022, he bought alleged prints by famous photographers for 1.5 million euros, which turned out to be simple digital prints. The deal was brokered by Stephan Welk, a fraudster with several criminal convictions who also had a penchant for dubious diplomatic identity cards from small African states. Mr. S. commented dryly on his investment: "Greed eats brains."
