Company cars

The director of Treberhilfe, a Berlin-based non-profit organization aiding the homeless, found himself in a bind this week trying to explain why he was driving a Maserati Quattroporte, a flashy Italian sports sedan that starts at about 90,000 euros ($120,000).

When asked about the car, Ehlert's response was that "a Maserati is a car for a gentleman." He added that his organization "worked unconventionally, but was absolutely respectable."

Ehlert, who has a predilection for fedoras, fine leather shoes and silk scarves, said it was important "to make a good impression on prospective donors."

Treberhilfe's website has since been shut down after angry donors flooded the portal with emails, calling Ehlert "asocial" and pledging never to donate again.

Christine Lehmacher-Dubberke, the spokeswoman for Diakonie Emergency Aid - the social service umbrella organization of the German protestant church that Treberhilfe belongs to - said a Maserati was "not a suitable company car" and buying one for that purpose was "morally reprehensible."

"Mr. Ehlert believes he needs the car," she said. "We see that differently."

Police probe

Meanwhile, police and state prosecutors are investigating claims of fraud and embezzlement at the Berlin-based women's relief group, Hatun & Can, after it surfaced that the organization was using a large, upscale, all-terrain vehicle as a company car.

Police have since confiscated a Land Rover and frozen most of the group's bank accounts.

The case came to light after Alice Schwarzer, a prominent German feminist and women's magazine publisher, won 500,000 euros on the celebrity edition of the television game show "Who wants to be a millionaire?" last year. She donated the prize money to Hatun & Can, but later filed charges against the group alleging fraud and misappropriation of funds.

Germany's feminist number one said that her attempts to find out what her donation was being used for had landed on deaf ears and that she got only "short and vague answers."

The women's organization rejected the allegations.

"[Schwarzer's] accusations are legally absurd and her charges - a catastrophic mistake," said Hubert Dreyling, a lawyer for Hatun & Can. "[She] is being hypocritical and acting self-important."

The women's aid group was named after 23-year-old Hatun Sürücü, who was gunned down in Berlin by her brother in a so-called "honor killing" five years ago because her fundamentalist Turkish-Kurdish family strongly disapproved of her modern and "un-Islamic" way of life.

gb/dpa/epd

Editor: Toma Tasovac