From Schockwellenreiter via AdvobLAWg: here is a link to the German-language press release from the Berlin police President, of 9th October, which I quote in summarized form:

bq. A 28-year-old Nigerian had 50,000 euros confiscated by the customs when he entered Germany from Switzerland recently. This was done because the man was receiving state welfare assistance and it wasn’t clear how he came to have the money. On the afternoon of 8th October, he went to the police in Berlin to reclaim the money.

bq. During the questioning, he gave his address, and a search of his flat in Friedrichshain was immediately carried out. The investigators found a large number of indications that he was involved in a large-scale fraud.

bq. The Nigerian, according to present knowledge, told at least 30 people from various countries that he wanted to have large amounts of money taken out of Africa. He promised his victims about 30% of the sums (which amounted to many millions of dollars) if they would remit to him money for fees, transport and deposit of the sums with security firms. All this was done by cashless transfer, so there was no personal contact with him. As far as is known, he used a fake South African passport to collect the money. To keep his victims happy, he sometimes sent them fake cheques. In the few cases where there was personal contact, he took large sums of money from his victims for a chemical. He claimed that the money had been coloured black to disguise it for transport, and this chemical would remove the colour. One victim from Bavaria alone (oh dear!) transferred over 200,000 euros to memebers of the Nigerian Connection from 1995 on.

bq. This Nigerian is part of a world-wide network that causes damage in the amount of many billions (i.e. thousands of millions) of euros every year. He already has a conviction for fraudulent transfer (Überweisungsbetrug) and is receiving unemployment benefit. He will be brought before a judge today (that is 9th October) for an arrest warrant/committal order.

Here is a humorous site on replying to the Nigerians.

At Carob, Robin Stocks has uploaded a huge list of links to German laws (i.e. both statutes and delegated legislation) in English translation. It is most impressive. Carob seems like a weblog to me, but Robin says he isn’t sure. Anyway, it has no possibility to leave comments, so let me just say here I think it’s fantastic.

The Kirchweih (annual fair) in Fürth takes over the whole town centre. The City Center shopping centre nearly wasn’t built because the entrance to the underground car park would have had to be blocked for 12 days once a year, but someone hit on the idea of a special traffic light and lane. There are temporary road markings all round the town during the Kirchweih and it’s not advisable to drive there if you don’t know your way around.

A German article in the Fürther Nachrichten reports that the law firm of Bauer and Neuhof (they haven’t even got a website) actually applied for an injunction to remove the mobile lavatory parked outside their offices. Apparently they backed down when it was moved by 2.5 metres. There’s a photograph in the article showing the situation.

bq. „Abgesehen vom Geruch sahen wir das auch als optische Belästigung und als Eingriff in den laufenden Gewerbebetrieb, denn so etwas ist ja nicht gerade einladend“, erklärt Neuhof, …

bq. (“Apart from the smell, we also saw it as a visual nuisance and as an intervention in our day-to-day business, because a thing like that isn’t exactly inviting,” says Neuhof,…)

Their offices are in a very elegant building, but obviously the visual aspect of 12 days’ Kirchweih in driving clients away had escaped me. The upshot is that the mayor would have voluntarily appeared in court to represent the interests of the people at the fair, and next year the toilets will be elsewhere, and their place will be taken by a caravan (why am I disappointed?). Other objections of this nature will not be tolerated.

Further to an earlier entry, Carob (a new translators’ blog in appearance if not in name – no permalinks though – by Caro and Robin Stocks) cites the Google address to which such spammers can be reported:

bq. Here’s where to report search engine spammers:

http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

2004 is the year when Schöffen (lay judges / lay assessors) are elected in Germany (via Handakte WebLAWg). The German Ministry of Justice has some further links.

The Schöffen are not like jurors. They are chosen for a four-year period (I think – 2005 to 2008), have to be German and between 25 and 69 years old, and will sit in small panels with one or more professional judges. They will sit in the same combination repeatedly, so they will get to know the professional judge or judges they sit with, which may be a good thing or a bad one. One of the FAQs for Schöffen at www.schoeffen.de relates to dress – no prescriptions as to clothing can be made, although the Schöffen should not wear transparent blouses or very short trousers. The Schöffen in Bavaria can normally be spotted because they are the ones wearing jeans and pullovers.

Make sure to open this link in a new window if you want to come back: there is a new German law dictionary called Alpmann Brockhaus, and on this site you can download an extract (consisting of 5 pages given twice! but it’s worth looking at the diagrams, which other German law dictionaries haven’t got). It comes as a book, or as a book plus CD-ROM (from Handakte WebLAWg).