The trial against ex-Warburg boss Olearius begins tomorrow. For the first time, a bank boss is on trial in the Cum-Ex affair. The connection to politics is also explosive – especially to Chancellor Scholz.
It will be a sensational trial that starts tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the Bonn district court. After those involved in tax evasion using cum-ex stock deals have been convicted in a series of trials since 2020, a former bank boss is now on trial for the first time: Christian Olearius.
Olearius is now 81 years old. For decades he was head and co-owner of the Hamburg Warburg Bank, a traditional private bank with a centuries-long history.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses him of particularly serious tax evasion. A total of 14 cases are being negotiated with a total loss of around 280 million euros.
Olearius faces a long prison sentence
Olearius did not personally carry out the Cum-Ex transactions, but the public prosecutor’s office assumes that the fraudulent intent of the transactions was clear to him. Since he signed the tax return that triggered the tax refund from the Federal Central Tax Office in Bonn, he has a legal responsibility.
Olearius is represented by former CSU politician and well-known lawyer Peter Gauweiler. Gauweiler is eloquent and is considered a lawyer with a very robust approach in court. The goal of the defense will be to avoid a long prison sentence, which is what Olearius is threatened with. He himself denies having committed any crimes.
Anne Brorhilker from the Cologne public prosecutor’s office for economic crime has become Germany’s best-known prosecutor through her Cum-Ex investigations. Ten years ago she was the only public prosecutor responsible for her first cum-ex case; today she has a team of around 30 public prosecutors and around 150 investigators.
But the number of proceedings and suspects is also huge: around 120 procedural complexes, around 1,700 suspects.
The process is guaranteed to attract a lot of attention
The trial now beginning will probably receive the most attention of all Cum-Ex proceedings to date – because of the connections between the Warburg Bank and politics.
Cum-Ex is criminal – this has been clarified for years by a BGH ruling. And no bank is as well screened by the public prosecutor’s office as the Warburg Bank.
The proceedings are explosive primarily because of the connection to Olaf Scholz during his time as Hamburg’s first mayor.
Scholz could be called as a witness
Olearius visited Scholz several times in 2016 because the tax authorities in Hamburg had made a large claim in the millions to Warburg Bank because of cum-ex transactions. The tax authorities in Hamburg gave in at that time and waived claims amounting to 47 million euros. As a result, the claim became statute-barred.
The banker wrote down the meetings in his diary, and the Cologne public prosecutor’s office confiscated this diary during a search – a piece of evidence. Scholz, on the other hand, points to gaps in memory regarding the meetings.
The Chancellor is not yet on the witness list, but can be called as a witness if the defense and/or public prosecutor request his questioning.
There has been an investigative committee in Hamburg since 2020. This essentially involves two questions: Did Scholz work to ensure that Warburg did not have to pay back the money from the tax refunds in 2016? And was he telling the truth about his contacts with Olearius?
It’s about 280 million euros
To put it simply, the major cum-ex tax fraud involves having a tax paid once on dividend income refunded several times.
Penalties for tax evasion depend on the extent of the tax damage: Particularly serious tax evasion starts at 50,000 euros – a prison sentence of up to ten years can be imposed.
In the case of Warbung Bank and Olearius it is about 280 million euros. If convicted, a prison sentence of several years is almost certain, because since the first cum-ex conviction in 2020, the sentences imposed have become harsher and the prison sentences longer.
Trial planned until March 2024
Most recently, Hanno Berger, one of the major designers of the Cum-Ex tax fraud model, was sentenced to eight years in prison – the verdict is not yet final. A comparable sentence would mean Olearius would be in prison almost until his 90th birthday.
As a first step, the court has scheduled 28 days of hearings until March 2024.