crime
Raid over cum-ex deals at SEB in Frankfurt
A branch of the SEB-Bank on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin. Photo: picture alliance / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
A good 80 investigators are targeting apartments and workplaces: In Frankfurt, former employees and other bank executives are suspected of being involved in cum-ex deals.
Investigators searched the German headquarters of the major Swedish bank SEB in Frankfurt in the cum-ex share dealings. The money house confirmed the raid on Wednesday and said it was cooperating with the authorities.
The Cologne public prosecutor had previously confirmed that there was a raid on the financial center. The search with more than 80 investigators, which has been running since Tuesday, would focus on the workplaces of the accused and apartments. The authority did not give the name of the bank. The “Handelsblatt” had previously reported. The background is therefore a tax demand from the tax authorities in the amount of 425 million euros plus interest.
Acted to the best of our knowledge
The SEB further stated that it was about business of the subsidiary DSK Hyp. The bank had “to the best of its knowledge” not offered or carried out any transactions in Germany aimed at recovering taxes that were not paid, it said in a statement. “We distance ourselves from this type of agreement.”
“The measures are in connection with cum / ex transactions of the bank and are directed against former employees and other responsible parties,” said a spokesman for the Cologne public prosecutor. The aim is in particular to find relevant communication in the form of e-mails and other written correspondence. In addition to representatives of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, investigators from the Essen criminal police, officials from other police stations, the Frankfurt tax investigation team and the Federal Central Tax Office were also involved in the search.
High tax reclaims
The tax authorities are now demanding even more taxes back from the SEB: In addition to the recovery of 425 million euros, which relates to transactions that have been in the past, the Frankfurt tax authorities made a further claim for 511 million euros on Wednesday, the SEB announced in Stockholm. The total claim of 936 million euros is unfounded and is being contested.
The “Cum-Ex” deals are one of the biggest tax scandals in German post-war history. Investors used a loophole in the law to cheat the German state out of money for years. Around the dividend cut-off date, several participants pushed shares with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend entitlement back and forth. As a result, tax authorities reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid. The state suffered billions in damage. In 2012 the tax loophole was closed.
Several public prosecutors and courts nationwide have been investigating for years. In July, the Federal Supreme Court ruled in a groundbreaking ruling that cum-ex deals are to be assessed as tax evasion and are therefore punishable by law.