Status: 07/29/2021 11:35 a.m.
In the view of the Federal Court of Justice, cum-ex deals were tax evasion. Finance Minister Scholz therefore expects further charges against those involved. He himself is still under criticism.
After the decision of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) on the Cum-Ex tax scandal, Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz expects further criminal proceedings against those involved who have wrongly had taxes reimbursed.
The SPD candidate for chancellor spoke of a “really big day”. The decision of the supreme court on the criminal liability of Cum-Ex transactions was “a hard basis” for “that the state will get the money back and that many of the public prosecutors in Germany will be charged,” said Scholz at an event for the magazine “Brigitte”.
It has never been lawful or legal to have taxes refunded twice or more.
Scholz denies allegations of influence
The former mayor of Hamburg repeated that there was no political influence on the financial authorities of the Hanseatic city in connection with the Hamburg Warburg Bank, which was convicted of cum-ex deals.
Scholz and other leading Hamburg SPD politicians are accused of influencing the tax treatment of the Warburg Bank. The background to this are meetings between the then Mayor Scholz and the co-owners of the bank, Christian Olearius and Max Warburg, in 2016 and 2017. A parliamentary committee of inquiry of the Hamburg citizenship is dealing with the case.
The deputy leader of the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Fabio De Masi, called the verdict in the “Rheinische Post” a “slap in the face” for Scholz. The AfD member of the Bundestag Kay Gottschalk called on the SPD candidate for Chancellor to go deeper into himself “whether he is really the right person to lead this country.”
With the landmark decision of the Federal Court of Justice published yesterday, two British stock traders are convicted of tax evasion and aiding and abetting tax evasion. They had been tried by the Bonn Regional Court.
With cum-ex deals, banks and investors had cheated the state out of billions. Financial experts now hope that the state can bring back more sums.