exclusive
A British stock trader is considered a central figure in the scene in the scandal surrounding stolen cum-ex billions. Because he cooperated with the German judiciary, his sentence was lenient. Now research by… WDR, ndr and SZ an unknown million-dollar fortune.
Martin S. is a stroke of luck for the German justice system. The British stock trader was deeply involved in so-called cum-ex transactions for years. In the opaque trading of shares, banks and investors had taxes refunded by the state for years that they had never paid.
The German tax authorities alone suffered tax damage estimated at more than ten billion euros as a result of the deals.
But when Martin S. appeared before the Bonn Regional Court in September 2019, he decided to come clean. In the days that followed, he explained in detail how exactly the largest tax theft in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany took place. When asked again, S. explained that he had “fully cooperated with the Cologne public prosecutor’s office at the time”; his statements had led to many other Cum-Ex proceedings being opened.
Two years probation
And Martin S. shows remorse in court for what he did and explains that he has had nothing to do with the illegal business since 2011. For the stock trader, who says he is cooperating with criminal investigators to this day, his openness is paying off: Martin S. gets off with a light sentence of two years on probation, and in 2020 he will also be sentenced to pay 14 million euros .
But now research from… WDR, NDR and Süddeutscher Zeitung raise new questions. Confidential documents show that at the time of his court hearing in Bonn, Martin S. was still co-owner of a shell company in the Cayman Islands that had played an important role in the Cum-Ex scandal. This emerges from documents from the financial service provider “Genesis Trust” that were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ shared the papers with international partner media.
Together with his former business partner Paul Mora, Martin S. conducted illegal cum-ex transactions for years through the company “Arunvill Capital Limited”. The Cologne public prosecutor’s office knows that he was still a co-owner of the company at the time of his trial. Research now shows that in the same year there were still 250 million British pounds in a subsidiary of Arunvill.
When asked, Martin S. said he could not understand the assumption that the company had assets worth £250 million at some point. He assumes that the assets of one company are offset by the liabilities of another company. He did not provide any evidence for this.
braid of several subsidiary company
The documents show that Arunvill Capital Limited was at the head of a network of several subsidiaries. Cum-ex transactions were apparently carried out through them until 2011. And apparently the companies were still quite lucrative even after 2011.
In 2019, the financial services provider “Genesis Trust” wrote to the Cayman Islands regulators because it was dealing with Martin S.’s business. Company appears suspicious. One of two subsidiaries will soon be dissolved, the letter says, meaning a dividend of 800,000 euros will be due.
It is unclear whether Martin S. received a share of the profits. He himself denies this. And explains that he also doesn’t know whether the planned dividend could have flowed to other shell companies. Martin S. also appears ignorant when asked about another matter: according to the documents WDR, NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung were able to see, the mysterious mailbox company Arunvill was resold in 2019, including subsidiaries.
In the same year, a subsidiary reported assets of 250 million British pounds, as described above. This sale also aroused the financial services provider’s suspicions at the time. Not least because it was unclear who was the buyer in the multi-million dollar deal, according to a corresponding report. The only thing that was clear was that Alexander S. was a Russian.
House Bank – a bank in Gibraltar
Where is the £250 million today? Could this possibly be money that also came from questionable stock transactions? The subsidiary states that its house bank is a bank in Gibraltar, a secretive tax haven to which EU authorities have little access.
Neither Martin S.’ business partner Paul Mora nor the Russian citizen Alexander S. want to comment on the strange sale of Arunvill. The service provider that has since taken over “Genesis Trust” also left repeated inquiries unanswered.
Martin S. claims that he knew nothing about the millions of dollars in value in the former Cum-Ex company. He was only promised $100 for the sale of Arunvill, and he never received that either. Even today, Martin S. is remorseful and has written: “Today I see clearly that I made mistakes. I deeply regret them.”
When asked, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office stated that it had questioned Martin S. extensively about all cum-ex transactions. He also told them that he had separated from the Arunvill Group. However, the investigation into the Arunvill Group has not yet been concluded.