Hamburg
Banker Olearius takes the floor in the Cum-Ex process
The accused banker Christian Olearius (2nd from left) is a personally liable partner of the private bank MM Warburg. photo
© Thomas Banneyer/dpa
Getting refunded for taxes that you didn’t pay – what sounds like an absurd idea, but financial actors turned it into an illegal business model. Now a prominent defendant is on trial.
It is the first time that a representative of the top management of a bank has to answer in court in the largest tax scandal in the Federal Republic. Olearius is a personally liable partner in the private bank MM Warburg; he was previously its boss.
The prosecution accuses the 81-year-old of 14 cases of particularly serious tax evasion, which are said to have led to tax losses of almost 280 million euros. In two cases it remained an attempt. Essentially, the crimes related to the period 2006 to 2011 and thus the peak phase of stock deals, in which financial actors staged a game of confusion and the tax authorities refunded taxes that had not been paid. As a result, the German state and thus the general public are estimated to have been cheated out of a double-digit billion euro amount. The Federal Court of Justice classified the business model as a criminal offense in 2021.
Olearius’ four defense lawyers have already rejected the allegations against their client in the proceedings that began at the end of September and have called for an acquittal. Now the defendant wants to speak out personally.
Scholz denies having supported Olearius
The Bonn trial is also of public interest because there is a connection in Olearius’ cum-ex proceedings to the then First Mayor of Hamburg and today’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). The two met three times in 2016 and 2017. At that time, Olearius tried to avert threatened tax refunds from his bank. Although Scholz confirmed the meetings, he said he can no longer remember the exact content. He denies having stood up for the banker. It is eagerly awaited whether Olearius will comment on the Scholz reference on Monday.
“Christian Olearius was well connected in Hamburg, acted as a benefactor and had political influence,” says former Green Party member of the Bundestag and current Financial Transition board member Schick. Of course, someone like that can easily get an appointment with the mayor. “But when the law is bent and broken to protect a city’s most influential citizens, a line has been crossed.”
The Cologne public prosecutor’s office and thus also the Bonn regional court play a central role in dealing with the tax scandal. Around 120 cum-ex investigations against 1,700 suspects are pending at the Cologne law enforcement agency. Nine charges were filed. A large number of further processes are expected in the coming years. The North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Justice recently decided to increase the number of positions for prosecutors in the Cologne Cum-Ex main department from 36 to 40. The Bonn regional court built a new building specifically for the proceedings.