Germany’s leading investigator in the cum-ex scandal is apparently said to be handing over cases against her will. According to research by the WDR North Rhine-Westphalia’s highest-ranking public prosecutor criticizes these plans – and puts the Minister of Justice in need of an explanation.
In the fall of 2013, the first cum-ex case landed on Anne Brorhilker’s desk. Since then, the public prosecutor has been investigating bankers, consultants and stock traders who were reimbursed for billions in taxes that they had not previously paid. The first groundbreaking and now legally binding verdicts in Germany’s largest tax scandal are based primarily on Brorhilker’s accusations.
She now heads a main department and investigates more than 1,700 suspects with 30 public prosecutors as well as criminal investigators and tax investigators. Brorhilker’s main department H is full of explosive cases: investigations against the former managers of the Landesbanken WestLB and HSH Nordbank, for example, who, despite their state ownership, are suspected of having dug into the state treasury.
Brorhilker was responsible for the Warburg charges
Brorhilker also investigates cum-ex cases at major banks and international investment banks, and she recently brought the Hamburg cum-ex scandal involving the private bank MM Warburg to court, which has long since raised questions about the role of the then First Mayor of Hamburg and today Chancellor Olaf Scholz raises.
Former Warburg boss Christian Olearius has been in the dock since the beginning of the week. In 2021, the prosecutor in Cologne was promoted to head of department. In the same year, the US media company Bloomberg listed her as one of the 50 most important personalities worldwide.
Prosecutor should hand over cases
Despite her successes, Brorhilker is now apparently to be deposed. The current head of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office is planning to split up the main department headed by Brorhilker. The senior public prosecutor would probably have to give up half of her employees and cases. The second main department is to be taken over by a public prosecutor who is previously inexperienced in Cum-Ex matters and who previously headed the juvenile criminal law department in the Ministry of Justice. “Manager Magazin” first reported on the plans.
According to research by the WDR The Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office had already clearly criticized the plans in a confidential report at the beginning of the month. The Attorney General’s assessment now also puts Justice Minister Limbach in need of an explanation.
Resistance to planned measures
Accordingly, the Attorney General reported to the Ministry of Justice at the beginning of September that the measure was apparently intended to take place against the will of Senior Public Prosecutor Brorhilker and, against this background, it was questionable whether such a restructuring would be effective. Ultimately, with two main department heads, the question would arise as to who was in overall management. The Cum-Ex cases are so complex and interwoven that the current structure with Brorhilker at the helm makes sense in terms of content. The “General” argued that it could even give the impression that a split would give the impression that the Cum-Ex investigations would be hindered.
Neither the Cologne public prosecutor’s office nor the public prosecutor’s office wanted to comment on the matter when asked. NRW Justice Minister Limbach commented on the disempowerment plans in front of the camera on Wednesday WDR political magazine Westpol. When asked about the planned split, he referred to the acting head of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office. Although he suggested measures, these had not yet been reported to him. Nothing has been decided yet.
“It is the job of the senior public prosecutor to look at his office and think about how he wants to organize and structure this office,” said Limbach. “If he wants to make certain suggestions, he will report them to the ministry through the attorney general. And then we will examine them.”
What did the ministry really know?
Is that the truth? The internal report from the Attorney General’s Office traces this WDR-Information, in any case, a completely different picture. Accordingly, the ministry was definitely involved in the plans for the new structure. Discussions about the restructuring, the Attorney General noted, were initially held directly between the ministry and the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, across his authority.
The main public prosecutor’s council, i.e. the staff representative of the public prosecutors in North Rhine-Westphalia, also apparently has doubts about the minister’s presentation. In an internal newsletter that… WDR available, the HR representatives report a conversation with Limbach on Monday this week, which also discussed the restructuring of the main department.
NRW Justice Minister Limbach appears to be clueless about the Brorhilker case.
Here too, Limbach apparently emphasized his ignorance. “With regard to possible organizational changes in the main department H (“Cum ex”), the Minister of Justice stated that he had not yet dealt with this,” the newsletter says.
And the Green Minister of Justice is also threatened with trouble elsewhere. It’s about email inboxes from the inner circle of the former First Mayor of Hamburg and today’s Federal Chancellor: Olaf Scholz. Emails typed by the current head of the Chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt, for example, or by Scholz’s former office manager. They were seized during a raid by the Cologne public prosecutor’s office.
In the Warburg affair, investigators are investigating whether Hamburg politicians and tax officials helped the private bank Warburg keep stolen tax money even after the scandal was exposed in 2016. Olaf Scholz is not being investigated. But the prosecutors from North Rhine-Westphalia were apparently hoping for further insights from the emails from his environment.
Difficult exchange with NRWPublic prosecutor
Members of the Hamburg Cum-Ex Investigative Committee are also trying to ensure this communication. The investigative committee’s working staff has been working on the emails for more than a year now. Deadlines were set – and have passed. The head of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office resigned in the summer in the dispute over the release of seized evidence. A high-ranking delegation from the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Justice traveled north and vowed to make improvements.
From the perspective of the Hamburg CDU, none of this brought the desired result: a final deadline set by CDU chairman Richard Seelmaecker ended on Wednesday. On that very day, Limbach explained to West Pole. He has “up-to-date, good news”. The data has now been released by the Cologne public prosecutor’s office and could be transmitted “in the next few days”.
Richard Seelmacker, CDU, does not trust the minister’s promise. After all, two months have passed since Limbach’s last promise without any consequences. Seelmaecker himself has not yet received any response to his letter. The data was not available to the working staff on Friday. “The deadline has passed, I have received nothing. I will now prepare the lawsuit,” says Seelmaecker.