Eduard Lintner, a former member of the German Parliament, has been convicted of bribing officials on behalf of the Azerbaijani government. A Munich court handed him a nine-month suspended prison sentence, which may still be appealed.
The case stems from a now eight-year old investigation, referred to as the ‘Azerbaijani Laundromat’, uncovered by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in 2017.
‘Azerbaijan’s ruling elite used a $2.9 billion slush fund to enrich themselves and pay European politicians to polish the country’s image amid international criticism of its human rights record’, the OCCRP wrote, describing the scandal.
Lintner pleaded not guilty in the case, claiming that he was simply lobbying on behalf of Azerbaijan with ‘honourable motives’.
In addition to Lintner’s sentence, the Munich court ordered for almost $130,000 to be confiscated from the widower of late-German MP and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of Europe (PACE), Karin Strenz, who died in 2021.
The court said that Strenz had been bribed by Lintner, as well as directly by Baku, to portray Azerbaijan in a more favourable light within PACE.
The funds in question represent ‘the value of proceeds from the offence’, a court spokesperson told the OCCRP.
Previously, charges against two other individuals in connection to the same ‘Azerbaijani Laundromat’ scheme were dropped after they confessed. The trial of a fourth individual has been delayed.
In a statement on Wednesday, Maíra Martini, the CEO of anti-corruption NGO Transparency International said that the ‘verdict shows that justice is possible, even in complex transnational corruption cases. Authorities in other countries linked to the Azerbaijani Laundromat scheme should follow Germany’s example and take action to ensure that those who took bribes and helped whitewash repression do not escape scrutiny’.
Lintner’s conviction in the Azerbaijani Laundromat affair is the latest case involving alleged bribes from Baku toward foreign politicians.
In May 2024, Henry Cuellar, a member of the US Congress from Texas, was indicted, along with his wife, for reportedly accepting around $600,000 in bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.
Cuellar was nonetheless reelected later that year.
Earlier in July 2025, the US Justice Department said the criminal proceedings against Cuellar would be moving forward. However, the New York Times reported that related charges against Cuellar under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) might be dropped amidst an ongoing push from the administration of President Donald Trump to ‘scale back such prosecutions under the law’.
Aytan Farhadova
