The "very ugly financial affair" relates to Dr. Kohl personally accepting some few Million
D-Mark donations in
cash for his party, the
CDU. Thing is, donations to political parties must be declared in
Germany, including names of the donators, to prevent corruption, and Kohl is refusing to state the names of the donators, because he "gave his word" to treat them
anonymously.
This behaviour, as well as running these donations on segregated, undeclared accounts, is clearly a
violation of
law. One can only suspect there must have been some connection between the donations and political decisions during his term of office. The word
bribery inevitably comes to mind.