The cum-ex trial against Warburg co-owner Christian Olearius should be one of the next major ones before the district court in Bonn. The filing of charges against the long-standing head of the private bank had already caused a stir last year. After that it became quiet, the court had not approved the indictment for months – and is likely to be significantly delayed again.
Because the 13th major criminal chamber of the Bonn Regional Court decided on Wednesday to reject the presiding judge Edgar Panizza. The reason for this is in itself: The court assumes that the presiding judge could be biased. Such a decision is highly unusual and is likely to further intensify the already politically explosive proceedings. From this process, the public expects not only the clarification of the cum-ex deals, but possibly also insights into the role played by Hamburg politicians and the former mayor there, Olaf Scholz, in the cum-ex affair involving the Warburg Bank. The question remains: How could such a glitch come about?
According to the district court, the presiding judge granted Olearius’s defense access to the files, which is initially a normal process. In it, however, the defense attorneys also discovered documents that were not on record and apparently arose from a cum-ex parallel process. This led them to believe that the presiding judge might be biased – and so they moved to have the presiding judge, Panizza, challenged. The 13th Criminal Chamber of the Bonn Regional Court now granted this and rejected its own chairman for precisely this reason. In a press release, the court emphasized that for such a dismissal it is not important whether someone is actually biased. The only important thing is whether there is an understandable concern that he could be biased. This was the case here.
If the indictment were finally approved by the court, Olearius would also be the first top German banker to be responsible for the cum-ex deals. The crooked share deals, in which shares were traded around the dividend date, could have cost the German state more than ten billion euros. It was only in 2012 that politicians were able to stop the share deals.
Judge Marion Slota-Haaf will now chair the 13th Criminal Chamber. She and the criminal court want to decide soon whether to admit the charges. But one thing is already certain: The eagerly awaited proceedings against the long-time boss and co-owner of the Hamburg private bank MM Warburg will be further delayed.
The Warburg Bank is now publicly distancing itself from the business
In the summer of 2022, the public prosecutor’s office brought charges against former Warburg boss Olearius, accusing him of serious tax evasion, among other things. Together with others, he caused total damage of more than 100 million euros. Specifically, it should be about the bank’s own transactions and other deals from two of its funds. In the past, Olearius had always emphasized that he did not know that the deals were illegal. According to its own statements, the Warburg Bank has now settled the tax damage incurred and is publicly distancing itself from the transactions that have occupied the bank for years and even caused today’s Chancellor to explain himself.
The case against Olearius is also considered explosive because he and Chancellor Olaf Scholz met several times in 2016 and 2017. At the time, the Hamburg tax office waived an additional tax claim related to the bank’s cum-ex deals, which was only revised later. Olaf Scholz firmly rejects any influence. In Hamburg, a committee of inquiry is currently dealing with the case, which intends to question the chancellor again soon.
The investigations also led to the Bonn Regional Court hearing several charges and issuing various judgments on the share deals. Including against two former Warburg employees. The Bonn Regional Court sentenced Christian S., the former chief representative of MM Warburg, to five and a half years in prison. A former manager of the subsidiary Warburg Invest was also convicted and has to go to prison for three and a half years. The Federal Court of Justice has meanwhile classified cum-ex transactions as punishable.