The Frankfurt University Hospital is expected to continue to be led by Jürgen Graf. The criminal allegations, about which the medical director has been in custody for weeks now Stuttgart In the court’s opinion, the case has not yet been sufficiently proven. He can therefore expect the criminal proceedings to be discontinued in accordance with Section 153 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and may only have to pay a fine. Last week there was a legal discussion between the court, the public prosecutor and the defense lawyers. The decision now lies with the Stuttgart public prosecutor.
Graf is accused of various breaches of trust. They are related to the Stuttgart Clinic’s attempt between 2008 and 2017 to generate extra-budgetary income to improve its balance sheet by treating foreign patients. Before moving to Frankfurt – from January 2014 to March 2016 – Graf was medical director of the Stuttgart Clinic for a short time. However, the organizationally weak department for the care of foreign patients was founded long before Graf took office.
During the trial, Graf had also made it clear through his lawyer that he was being held accountable by the prosecution in negotiations with him Frankfurt University Hospital had to accept disadvantages through a contract extension and in the event of a conviction a “condition subsequent” in his employment contract would apply. That means: In this case, he would have to hand over the management of the university hospital. Graf, the former managing director of the clinic and the deputy mayor who was responsible for the city’s health system at the time, are charged.
The main defendant has not yet served his sentence
The largest hospital in the Baden-Württemberg state capital was a provider of maximum care and was in deficit for many years. At the center of the criminal proceedings were the statements of Andreas Braun, the former head of the “International Unit” (IU), the department that organized the treatment and billing of the foreign patients. The damage to the clinic is estimated at around eleven million euros. The core accusation of the prosecution is that so-called “management costs”, i.e. hotel and maintenance costs, were billed as treatment costs for Libyan patients and that bribes were paid to patient brokers. Essentially, it was about incorrect invoices for 372 war-injured patients from Libya and a cooperation project with clinics in Kuwait.
The hospital scandal also had a political dimension in Baden-Württemberg because the idea behind the establishment of the “International Unit” was the former hospital mayor of the city of Stuttgart, Klaus-Peter Murawski. The Green politician was later head of the State Chancellery of the Green Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann. Murawski resigned from office in 2018 for health reasons. At this point, he was criticized for months as the politician who was responsible for setting up the foreign department. In August 2024, the Stuttgart regional court sentenced the former department head Braun to a prison sentence of four years and nine months. Braun has not yet served his sentence.
A foreign department promised fabulous returns
Braun had criticized the “organized irresponsibility” in setting up his department in the main hearing: “Everyone, everyone closed their eyes.” That was cynical because they only had a return on sales of 42 percent in mind. “If you are prepared for such a return, then you also have to get involved in such methods,” Braun said, implying that those responsible in the clinic and also in local politics in Stuttgart should have been more critical. About Graf, Braun said that shortly after taking office as clinic boss, he recognized the “organized lack of leadership and organized irresponsibility” and then introduced “structured quarterly reports” for the first time. He had also confirmed that he had withheld some information from Graf in order to be able to continue running the business.
About his own role as head of the international department, the witness Braun said: “I felt great, I thought I was great and believed I was the savior of the clinic. I lived out my narcissism.” Braun said about the patients from Libya who were allegedly seriously injured in the war: Half of the patients believed that they had landed in St. Pauli, a few were seriously ill. “About half of them weren’t seriously ill; these gentlemen caused trouble when they were heavily drunk.” According to the court, the prosecution’s claim that Graf could have acted intentionally when signing invoices because he knew the full extent of the scandal could not be proven in the main proceedings.
According to Graf’s account and the statement read out by his lawyer, he took over the clinic in 2014 with many structural, financial and problems in the quality of medical care. Even his predecessor, who had a consulting contract for this, took care of the foreign department. Graf does not claim to have tolerated any illegal actions; Braun’s department itself made the invoices. He only found out about the project’s problems through the quarterly reports, which he ordered himself.
The court considers Graf’s conviction for breach of trust to be unlikely, and the defendant’s low level of guilt also suggests that further prosecution is in the public interest. For the Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office, a discontinuation of the proceedings would be a defeat; they want to examine the court’s proposal thoroughly. Whether the defendant’s defense attorneys ultimately agree to the court’s proposal will also depend on the amount of the money required.
