Lobbyist, Consultant, Supervisory Board: Merz has many jobs

Berlin / New York (dpa) – 5000 euros per day. This was Friedrich Merz's award when Landesbank was WestLB's "sales representative", who was supported by large state subsidies. In recent years, Merz has been one of the most important jobs in recent years – and he is in possession of it. After retiring from active politics in 2009, he had a successful career as Merz, a multifunctional and networking company.
What do you do and is Merz in the private sector?
Now a 62-year-old lawyer has been working at Mayer Brown International Law Firm in Düsseldorf since 2005. According to the company, Merz advises companies on mergers, their clients include "many DAX companies and international companies". Merz also has a number of posts: Head of the Supervisory Board of the Blackrock Germany Trusteeship and the Supervisory Board of the wepa paper company Arnsberg.
In addition, Merz led the Cologne-Bonn Airport Supervisory Board and was a member of the HSBC Germany Private Bank Supervisory Board. He also sits on the board of directors of the Swiss Zugbauers and Siemens racer Stadler Rail. Merz is so well connected. Speakers of the Supervisory Board's mandate if they are elected as new CDU Chairmen in December.
What is Merz in Blackrock – and what does Blackrock do?
One of Merz's positions, now chiefly among headlines, is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Blackrock's German Derivatives. The world's largest investment company has enormous strength in financial markets. Critics such as Heike Buchter ("Die Zeit"), a journalist who published the book "Blackrock – A Secret World Power for Our Money" in 2015, threatens the New York-based company to the global economy.
Founder of Blackrock, Larry Fink, started the company in 1988 as a subsidiary of the Blackstone investment company. Finally, after the financial crisis, iShares bought it for the industrial giant. Blackrock has recently spent $ 6.4 trillion ($ 5.7 trillion) on customer money – more than any other financial group. In addition, the company acquires its analytical department well – it also advises governments and central banks, to reiterate its suspicions.
In Germany, Blackrock has a tremendous influence over many companies. According to the Financial Supervisory Authority, Americans are involved in at least 67 state-owned companies in this country. According to the DSW Association, the financial group is the largest single shareholder in 20 of the top 30 DAX companies and holds more than five percent of the 19 DAX companies.
What role did Merz play in WestLB?
NRW-Landesbank encountered difficulties during the financial market crisis, the state had to support the institute. The plan was for sale to a private investor. Merchant has named the "state-owned" retailer "Soffin" in 2010 as "disposable" – sold the shares of Landesbank, then federal government, North Rhine-Westphalia and local savings banks. The entire sales of the institute eventually failed, the Landesbank collapsed, and Merz's work ended after one year.
The price agreed with Merz was € 5,000 per calendar day and other consultants, for example, We have made additional investment costs for investment bankers and corporate leases, as is reported by the report of the NRW Landtag Committee of Inquiry on WestLB events. This was not only a cheap offer, "said Walter-Borjans, former NRW finance minister, as the witness of the committee. Merz himself testified that the charge corresponds to "normal hourly fees".
What does "Brexit representative" mean by Merz NRW?
From January 2018, Merz Brex was represented by a representative of the government of the NRW state led by the CDU. You should strengthen your relationship with the hard American partner, President Donald Trump. The lawyer and the "transatlantic" conviction are well connected here, since 2009, president of the "Atlantic Bridge". The opposition criticized North Rhine-Westphalia because Merz was the "supreme lobbyist" of private funding, providing direct, unimpeded access to the State Chancellor.
Why is there criticism for Merz?
The many roles and nature of the assignments called the scene critically. Timo Lange of LobbyControl, a non-profit association committed to greater transparency in policy-making, said: "Friedrich Merz and many jobs and lobbing on the economy make incompatibility almost unavoidable." Anti-corruption President Edda Müller said: "Friedrich Merz should explain to CDU members that he has worked in various aspects of the financial sector due to the socially responsible behavior of his clients – for example, the supervisory board of HSBC Germany's private bank, involved in cum-ex transactions. "They had to show how she wanted to use these experiences for a" common good policy ".
What does Merz say?
The CDU politician declined the allegations on Wednesday as Blackrock was "grasshopper". Among other things, this term was created by the former SPD chief Franz Müntefering in 2004 – for financial investors who cruelly pressured and broke out the acquired companies. Blackrock has hundreds of thousands of private customers, saying "there is no conflict," Merz said. "I'm supervising this company in Germany, but I'm not keeping it." Before the journalists in Budapest, a little later, he says "there are too few shareholders in Germany".

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