The Stuttgart State Prosecutor’s Office had filed charges against Michael Ballweg, the founder of the Querdenken 711 movement, in March 2023, accusing him of tax fraud, attempted fraud and money laundering. The main trial began on October 2, 2024, at the Stuttgart Regional Court. Ballweg had spent nearly nine months in pre-trial detention at the high-security prison in Stuttgart-Stammheim from June 2022. The presiding judge then proposed to drop the case due to its insignificance, but the prosecutor did not agree, as the prosecution believed a conviction was likely.
According to media summaries, Ballweg is accused by the Stuttgart State Prosecutor’s Office of attempting to defraud over 9,450 people, with the accused allegedly raising more than one million euros through public appeals and then using the money for personal purposes. The prosecutor claims that Ballweg used 575,929.84 euros for personal purposes, while documenting 843,111.68 euros in expenses for the Querdenken movement.
Despite years of investigations, including Ballweg’s arrest for alleged flight danger and subsequent nine-month detention, the prosecution now proposes to drop the case without conditions and against cost reimbursement. The accused and his lawyers have consistently denied the prosecutor’s allegations from the start of the investigation. T-Online reports that the prosecution’s argument is that some donors may not have cared what happened to the money, so no one was actually defrauded. The focus of the trial is thus on Ballweg’s alleged intent to deceive.
The Stuttgart State Prosecutor’s Office has not followed the court’s proposal and has rejected the case’s dismissal, as the prosecution still believes a final conviction is likely. The possibility of a final judgment and even a potential motion to recuse the presiding judge is now in the air.