Lawyer charged with gang-related human trafficking – Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office files charges

A case of alleged organized human trafficking is currently rocking the legal scene in Frankfurt: The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office has filed charges against four men – including a 52-year-old lawyer from Frankfurt . He is accused of playing a central role in a human trafficking network that enabled wealthy foreigners to obtain residence permits in Germany through fake residence and employment relationships .

Fake companies and fake addresses as immigration vehicles

According to investigating authorities, the lawyer is said to have deliberately rented or purchased residential and commercial properties in Pirmasens and Saarbrücken through a company he managed. Fake companies were then set up in these properties . The clients – predominantly from China, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Turkey, and Vietnam – allegedly received fake employment contracts and registered fake residences there in order to formally fulfill the requirements for a residence permit. The accusation is serious: In at least 20 cases between 2021 and 2023, the defendants are said to have organized residence permits for their clients in this way. An amount of between 20,000 and 35,000 euros was transferred per case – a total of several hundred thousand euros could have been transacted in this way.

Major raid in four federal states

As early as April 2023, the Public Prosecutor General's Office's investigations had led to a nationwide raid . A total of 91 properties in Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland were searched. Around 200 Federal Police officers and several prosecutors from the so-called intervention reserve—a special unit for complex economic and organized crime—were deployed.

What this case means

The case demonstrates once again how complex and lucrative the smuggling of people through legal and administrative loopholes can be – especially when professional structures with a veneer of legality are used. Particularly explosive is the alleged role of a lawyer who, as an organ of the judiciary, is actually bound by the law. If the suspicion is confirmed, this would not only represent individual misconduct, but also a deeper abuse of trust in the German legal and migration system. The trial at the Frankfurt Regional Court is likely to attract considerable public interest – not least because it raises fundamental questions about how to deal with so-called "legal smuggling," which is legitimized by seemingly formally correct documents.