Unjustly received

Schlecker family ordered to pay back millions

More than twelve years after the opening of insolvency proceedings, those responsible for the former drugstore chain Schlecker must repay a loan of 1.35 million euros. The Zwickau-based company Meniar unlawfully paid out the loan to the group in 2011, the Zwickau district court announced on Monday.

According to the ruling, the company, which provided the drugstore chain based in Ehingen in Baden-Württemberg with temporary workers, is said to have paid a sum in the millions shortly before Schlecker's insolvency proceedings. The judgment is not yet legally binding.

Wife and children to pay
According to the information, the former managing director ran the personnel service provider as a trustee for the Schlecker family. Now he and the wife and children of company founder Anton Schlecker are to repay the loan as well as the interest incurred.

The Schlecker drugstore chain went bankrupt in 2012. Around 25,000 employees, mainly women, lost their jobs. Meniar ("People in Work") was founded in 2008 to re-employ former Schlecker employees after they had been made redundant - albeit as temporary workers for significantly less money. This "revolving door effect" was abolished with the law against the abuse of temporary work, which came into force in 2011. The law is also known as the "Lex Schlecker".

Verdict against company founder and children
After the Schlecker bankruptcy, company founder Anton Schlecker and his children Lars and Meike finally had to answer for their actions in a bankruptcy trial. The Schlecker children were sentenced to two years and seven months in prison for embezzlement, delaying insolvency, bankruptcy and aiding and abetting their father's bankruptcy. Anton Schlecker himself was given a suspended sentence.

In Schlecker's heyday, the company had more than 50,000 employees and around 14,000 stores across Europe. The drugstore king was one of the richest people in Germany and, in the face of his company's insolvency, managed to set aside millions of euros.