On 30 November 1999, former chancellor Helmut Kohl confirmed in a television interview that the secret CDU accounts existed. He said he had given the donors his Ehrenwort, his word of honor, not to name them. On 18 January 2000, under pressure from the CDU leadership, he resigned as the party’s honorary chairman. On 3 March 2001, the regional court in Bonn agreed to end the investigation against him, and he had to pay 300,000 DM. In this case, keeping his word meant withholding the names.