German magazine Der Spiegel said it would file a criminal complaint against a former star writer who admitted falsifying reports, after discovering that he also appeared to have set up a fake charity operation for Syrian children.
The magazine said it found that Claas Relotius had asked readers via email to donate money for children he described in his fake reports to his private bank account, and had launched an investigation.
Der Spiegel said the Syrian children who Mr. Relotius described probably didn’t exist and that the magazine had no knowledge of the donations elicited by their former employee.
Der Spiegel, Europe’s best-selling current-affairs magazine, is already dealing with the fallout from the revelation that Mr. Relotius fabricated reporting in an article about Fergus Falls, Minn., that portrayed Trump supporters in the small town as bigoted and racist. In the past week, the magazine dispatched its U.S. editor to the town to write a follow-up piece.
Mr. Relotius, an award-winning journalist, resigned from the magazine earlier this month after admitting to making up parts of his reporting.
Der Spiegel published emails from Mr. Relotius asking readers for donations for Syrian children.
“If you are ready to donate money to the family, then I would be very happy. As a private person I can sadly not issue a donation invoice and I can only give you my private account. You must then trust me—like you do as a reader—that I will of course pass on 100% of every euro and every cent,” Mr. Relotius wrote to one reader in email published by Der Spiegel.
In another email, Mr. Relotius asked readers to spread the word about the possibility of donating money but to refrain from publicizing his own messages on the internet.
Der Spiegel said its research showed that Syrian children that had been interviewed by Mr. Relotius hadn’t received any donations.
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