Judgment: State of NRW to pay compensation to banker Olearius
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is to pay Hamburg banker Christian Olearius 10,000 euros in damages for violating his right to privacy, according to a ruling by the Cologne Regional Court. This is the result of the ruling (case no. 5 O 195/22 of 24.10.2023), which was made available to "Welt am Sonntag" and Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
The court justified its decision by stating that the plaintiff was entitled to compensation because the contents of his diaries confiscated by the state had been disclosed to unauthorized third parties. After taking evidence, the court came to the conclusion that the content of the diaries must have been passed on to journalists "from the sphere of the defendant state". The "Welt am Sonntag" newspaper had previously reported on the ruling.
According to the newspaper, the trial concerned Olearius' diaries, which officials had confiscated during a raid due to his possible involvement in illegal cum-ex share transactions in 2018. Two years later, several media outlets quoted from the diaries.
Passing on or enabling access to the contents of the diaries constituted a breach of official duty, according to the ruling. "The defendant state has a duty to store sensitive data in such a way that it is protected from unauthorized access. The chamber was unable to determine whether the data was intentionally passed on to the unauthorized third parties."
When asked by the newspaper, the Cologne Public Prosecutor General's Office, representing the state, explained that it would examine the reasons for the ruling and then decide on possible legal remedies. "The verdict is the next in a long line of failures of justice," a spokesperson for Olearius told dpa.
Olearius is a partner in the Hamburg-based private bank M.M. Warburg, which was involved in cum-ex deals. The banker is currently on trial before the Bonn Regional Court on charges of serious tax evasion in 14 cases, with damages amounting to almost 280 million euros.
The state's handling of Olearius' confiscated diaries, containing information about possible illegal activities, raised questions about the protection of sensitive data in banks' processes. The breach of official duty in passing on or enabling access to the diary contents was a significant point in the court's ruling.
Source: www.dpa.com
