Kohl acknowledges receiving cash gifts

Kohl acknowledges receiving cash gifts
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

BERLIN, MARCH 25: Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl acknowledges receiving cash gifts between 1989 and 1992 in an interview with Monday's edition of Focus magazine.

"I do not want to rule out that there were also cash gifts received in that period. As far as I am concerned, I remember that for the 1990 electoral year, we received donations to support our candidates," Kohl said.

Until now, Kohl has only admitted receiving 2.1 million marks (1.07 million Dollars/Euros) between 1993 and 1998, a sum which did not appear, as German law requires, in the accounts of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

He has refused to name the donors.

Kohl also announced recently that he had raised 6.3 million marks from industrialists and private individuals to pay fines which are expected to be levied on the scandal-ridden CDU in punishment for the secret bank accounts managed by the former Chancellor.

The Bundestag, the lower chamber of the German parliament, has already imposed a fine of 41.3 million marks on the party for accounting irregularities by its branch in the Hesse state in Western Germany.