Saint-Germain-en-Laye: Battistelli, Lamy (Battistelli's 'handler' in France) and Raimund Lutz conducting EPO affairs

Summary: The profound corruption in the European Patent Office (involving billions of euros) receives some media attention, but it may be too late to do something about it because a former banker from a disgraced bank, a friend of Battistelli who hereon enjoys diplomatic immunity (passed from Battistelli at the EPO), will be difficult to interrogate about Battistelli's affairs

AS we noted exactly a week ago (last Friday), the EPO is being belatedly subjected to scrutiny, for corruption like Battistelli's passage of EPO funds to his other employer and gambling with billions in cash reserves, just like Lamy (his other boss, the one in Saint-Germain-en-Laye).

Here is SUEPO's English translation [PDF] not of the main feature, which is behind a paywall, but of the short and partial item, which reads as follows:

AUDIT OFFICE Sharp criticism of the financial conduct of the European Patent Office

EXCLUSIVE

by Petra Sorge 24 June 2018

Main building of the European Patent Office in Munich.
Picture: imago

As from July, a fund will be administering the assets of the European Patent Office, in the amount of 2.3 billion Euro. The Federal Audit Office and financial are sharply critical of the change.

The Federal Audit Office and financial experts are heavily critical of the planned changes to the assets administration of the European Patent Office (EPO). As from July, plans are for a fund to manage the Patent Office assets, in the amount of 2.3 billion Euro. The fund, under the name “EPO Treasury Investment Fund”, EPOTIF for short, is also said to be intending to purchase risky bonds, among them asset-backed securities and credit default swaps, which in large part became worthless during the financial crisis, and drove banks to the brink of disaster. This derives from records and reports which WirtschaftsWoche has been able to examine.

According to WirtschaftsWoche, the Federal Audit Office has found fault with the fact that the guidelines for the fund contain “no requirements for the creditworthiness of the contracting parties, issuers, or products”, that there are “no provisions for avoiding cluster risks”, and that the risk consideration is based on only one model, “with correspondingly high risk of loss”. The Administrative Council of the EPO still need to give their agreement to the planned changes by the end of June.

Former constitutional judge and patent examiner Siegfried Bross calls the 2.3 billion Euro EPO fund a “shadow budget”. This is “violating the fundamental democratic principle according to which public budgetary arrangements must be subject to Parliamentary supervision”, Bross told WirtschaftsWoche. This “financial behaviour” is not covered by the European Patent Convention, the foundation instrument of the EPO, and is therefore “impermissible” Munich patent attorney Thorsten Bausch of the firm of Hoffmann Eitle considers the new investment strategy “fundamentally a scandal”. He fears that the Office is alienating its resources from their purpose. The money belongs to patent applicants, and the EPO has no right simply to gamble it on the stock market”, he says.

EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE The sinister gamble

PREMIUM

The European Patent Office has accumulated 2.3 billion Euro – and now wants to join the speculators. The Federal Audit Office is sounding the alarm.

Battistelli's 'mentor' has done this before, as we covered in the following articles one month ago:

• Saint-Germain's Poisonous Legacy of "Toxic Loans": Cautionary Tale for the EPO?
• Saint-Germain's Poisonous Legacy of "Toxic Loans": The Emperor’s New Investment Guidelines
• Saint-Germain's Poisonous Legacy of "Toxic Loans": The Cautionary Tale of SIDRU and Its “Toxic Loans”
• Saint-Germain's Poisonous Legacy of "Toxic Loans": The SIDRU “Toxic Loan” Débâcle and Criticism of Lamy From Local Opposition Groups
• Saint-Germain's Poisonous Legacy of "Toxic Loans": The SIDRU “Toxic Loan” Débâcle a Case of “Take the Money and Run...”
• Saint-Germain's Poisonous Legacy of "Toxic Loans": Quo Vadis EPO?
• Index for EPO and Saint-Germain's Poisonous Legacy of "Toxic Loans" Series
• St. Germain’s “Système Lamy” and Its EPO Clone - Part 1: Rubber-stamp Committees and Secret Meetings
• St. Germain’s “Système Lamy” and Its EPO Clone - Part 2: Misinformation and Silencing of Dissent
• St. Germain’s “Système Lamy” and Its EPO Clone - Part 3: Shooting the Messengers and Defaming Opponents

Battistelli's 'vassal' (successor of choice) is former banker, António Campinos, whose bank also made many headlines for financial melt-down and serious abuses (in the "P" of "P.I.G.S."). Campinos does not want people to know about this part of his career (omitted from his CV). ⬆