Paul Mora once lived a life of luxury. As a banker, he earned several million and owned luxury properties all over Europe. But in recent years, it was not the glamour of success that made him visible, but a wanted poster. Whether at train stations or airports, the man with the slicked-back hair and chubby face stared at travelers from bright red wanted posters. Above it was written in large letters “tax evasion,” and below it the question: “Can you give any information about the whereabouts of Paul Robert MORA?”.
The Federal Criminal Police Office and the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office were responsible for this poster campaign, which he considered very unpleasant, and had put Mora on the worldwide wanted list in 2021. In addition, the New Zealand-born man found himself temporarily on Interpol’s “Most Wanted List”, where former Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek also has a permanent place.
Unlike Marsalek, Mora is not wanted because he is said to have led a DAX company into ruin, but because he is suspected of having stolen millions of euros from the German state. According to investigators, he is said to be part of Germany’s biggest tax scandal: Cum-Ex.
What is this about? Banks and stock traders had a one-off tax paid on dividends refunded several times, thereby costing the German tax authorities more than ten billion euros. According to investigators, Mora played a key role in the deals, including at Hypo Vereinsbank, where he quickly made an impression.
The massive man was considered by some to be a “rainmaker” and made a lot of money for it. This was presumably made possible by cum-ex deals with extremely wealthy customers. Mora was still not happy with the situation, probably wanted a bigger share of the cum-ex pie and went into business for himself together with Martin S. They founded the “Ballance” group of companies and, according to several indictments, carried out cum-ex deals on a large scale. Until Germany put a stop to the deals in 2012, both of them presumably made many millions of euros.
Investigators want to bring the former “Most Wanted” man to Germany
Charges have been brought against Mora in the regional courts in Bonn and Wiesbaden. In both cases, the public prosecutor’s office accuses him of particularly serious tax evasion. In both cases, no trial has yet been held. Paul Robert Mora fled to his homeland, where he is believed to have been staying since then. New Zealand is unlikely to extradite its citizen. However, if he were to leave the country, he would have to be arrested immediately on the basis of the international arrest warrant and then extradited to Germany.
But the German investigators are persistent and want to counter Mora’s game of hide-and-seek. Research by SSouth German newspaper and WDR According to the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office has recently increased the pressure on the fugitive banker several times. In spring 2023, investigators searched his properties in Switzerland and Spain. In February 2024, they also confiscated his co-ownership share in a villa in the Swiss municipality of Grindelwald. However, another measure is likely to be much more significant and more annoying for Mora in the long term: According to research, investigators filed an extradition request for Paul Mora as early as 2023. The investigators and the New Zealand authorities have kept this secret so far. Because a positive decision could well have explosive power.
Extradition requests from non-European countries are usually slow, drawn-out and unlikely to be successful. If the person in question is a citizen, as Mora is in New Zealand, the chances are even lower. But the investigators are certainly counting on a chance with the former “Most Wanted” man. According to research, the otherwise cautious New Zealand authorities did not reject the request from the outset, but have been processing it for more than a year.
According to insiders, progress is slow, but it is apparently making progress. Paul Mora’s lawyers did not respond to a request from WDR and SZ about the investigators’ allegations and the extradition request. In the past, he denied his guilt. The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the extradition request when asked.
It would not be the first success for the investigators
It would be a small feat if the investigators succeeded in bringing the fugitive banker before German courts. In the Cum-Ex case overall, it would be the third success. In 2022, after a long struggle, Switzerland extradited Hanno Berger to Germany, who was also known in investigator circles as “Mr. Cum-Ex”. Berger was sentenced to eight years in prison in a first trial. The Federal Court of Justice is currently examining a second prison sentence against him.
At the end of 2023, the United Arab Emirates extradited Dubai-based hedge fund manager Sanjay Shah to Denmark, where he has been on trial since this spring. Investigators there accuse him of depriving the tax authorities of more than one billion euros through cum-ex transactions. Shah has denied all allegations in the past and reiterated before the Danish court that he was innocentIn Germany, Shah has also been charged with money laundering and tax evasion. Shah has also denied these allegations in the past.
Some of the other defendants in Germany’s biggest tax scandal did not have to be extradited. Due to the investigative pressure from the Cologne and Frankfurt public prosecutors, they took the bull by the horns, reported themselves to the German judiciary and gave evidence to the investigators and later in the first Cum-Ex trials. Some of them traveled from Great Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland to do so.
BKA publishes new photo of Mora
While the extradition request against Mora is being processed in New Zealand, investigators in Europe are increasing the pressure on the former banker. Just this Monday The Federal Criminal Police Office published a new wanted photo of Mora. It shows the New Zealander wearing glasses and is from a wedding on Mallorca in 2016. The photo can be found on the website of a wedding planning company on the Balearic island. The investigators assume that the 56-year-old still looks similar today.
And they go where it is most painful for Mora – his money. According to joint research by WDR and SZ, several of Mora’s properties in Europe were searched in early 2023, including a property in Switzerland and a finca on Mallorca. In February 2024, investigators then confiscated Mora’s co-ownership share in the “Villa Flora” in Switzerland. The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office also confirmed this upon request.
The Art Nouveau villa in the small town of Grindelwald in Switzerland is considered an architectural treasure. Mora and his wife bought the property almost ten years ago. Two architects were commissioned to carefully renovate the building. The “Icon from 1909“ with almost 250 square meters of living space, eight and a half rooms and more than 1300 square meters of land for 7.5 million Swiss francs on the Internet. That is about 7.8 million euros. “An extraordinary villa to fall in love with in Grindelwald,” it says on the Broker’s pageWell, Paul Mora is unlikely to be in the mood to fall in love with anything at the moment. If the property is sold, after a long process, money could end up going to the Hessian tax authorities, at least to the amount of the co-ownership share that has been seized. Whether and when that will happen is still uncertain, as is Mora’s possible extradition.