Olaf Scholz and Peter Tschentscher reported for Cum-Ex affair

financial scandal
Media report: Scholz and Tschentscher reported for Cum-Ex affair about Warburg Bank

As if Olaf Scholz didn’t have enough to do these days, trouble is brewing again. And that has to do directly with the chancellor himself. As the “Spiegel” reports, the defense attorney Gerhard Strate has filed a criminal complaint with the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office against Olaf Scholz and Hamburg’s mayor Peter Tschentscher. They are accused of “assisting in tax evasion”. Scholz is also accused of making false unsworn statements, reports the “Spiegel”, citing the 36-page ad.

The ad is related to the “Cum-Ex” deals. Banks and other financial players pushed stocks with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend rights back and forth around the dividend record date. With the confusion, the state was tricked into refunding capital taxes that had never been paid. The costs are in the tens of billions. Several courts and public prosecutors have been working on the cum-ex scandal for years.

The Federal Court of Justice had described the financial transactions as illegal last year. Two former Warburg bankers involved in Cum-Ex have been sentenced to several years in prison.

Olaf Scholz does not want to have known anything

Olaf Scholz and Peter Tschentscher, both SPD politicians and then mayor or finance senator, are said to have failed to reclaim 47 million euros from the Hamburg private bank MM Warburg & Co. in 2016. A sum that was reimbursed to the bank by the tax office in connection with the cum-ex transactions. The Hamburg tax office later refrained from demanding the money back because it was assumed that the matter would become statute-barred. The public prosecutor’s office in Hamburg has received several reports against the two politicians. So far, the authorities have seen no reason to investigate.

In addition, Olaf Scholz in particular does not want to have known anything about the scandal. Both politicians also asserted that they had not influenced the business. But there is a catch: the chairman of the bank’s supervisory board, Christian Olearius, made two appearances with the then mayor Scholz.

Before the Hamburg investigative committee dealing with the case, he had repeatedly confirmed that he could not remember conversations with Warburg banker Olearius. This is “wrong”, according to Strate. Scholz was instructed by a “paper from the economic authority” to prepare for a meeting with the bank’s supervisory board chairman. The cum-ex transactions were already mentioned in the first line as a “possible point of contact”. In addition, the paper contained indications that the Warburg Bank was possibly “involved in criminal stock transactions”.

Criminal defense lawyer Strate therefore concludes: “A complete lack of memory – as Olaf Scholz claims for himself – is a phenomenon that is occasionally diagnosed in statement and memory psychology only in the context of a so-called post-traumatic stress disorder. There are no indications for this here. “

“An inglorious novelty in Germany”

According to the indictment document, the criminal defense attorney also assumes that “the criminal embedding of these transactions” was already obvious at the end of 2016. The fact that Olearius argued that the bank had relied on the capital gains tax due being paid by a partner bank involved “can only cause incredulous amazement”. After all, in its tax return, the bank “claimed that the capital gains tax (…) was actually paid”. Although she “didn’t have any knowledge about it at all,” the “Spiegel” quoted.

The fact that the then finance senator and current mayor Tschentscher argued that the Senate “allowed the tax offices to do their work in accordance with the law and without any political influence” is described by Strate as “accommodating”. However, that has “nothing to do with law and order”. The Hamburg Senate not only forms the state government, but also the top management, argues Strate, citing the Hamburg state constitution. Accordingly, the finance senator is responsible for the administrative and technical supervision of the tax offices and is also entitled to “prevent illegal activity if he becomes aware of it”.

A first reaction came from the opposition. CDU politician Richard Seelmaecker, who is also the chairman of his group in the U-Committee, described Scholz in the “Spiegel” as “an unbelievable chancellor”. If the suspicion is sufficient, Scholz would have to go to the dock – “an inglorious novelty in Germany”.

NRW is trying to get tougher penalties for tax evaders

However, the case continues to expand. Recently, reports of suspected money laundering have increased, reports the “Handelsblatt”. At the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a special unit of customs, financial institutions would have placed a three-digit number of such reports. A government spokesman declined to comment on the number. What is certain, however, is that the ads are cases in connection with cum-ex stock transactions. The evasion of capital gains taxes that took place in the process were “suitable predicate offenses for money laundering,” it said. The FIU is not an investigative authority, but examines the reports received. If it comes to the conclusion that money has been laundered, it turns on the responsible public prosecutor’s office.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is meanwhile trying to get tougher penalties for tax evasion with cum-ex stock transactions. So far, cum-ex and similar cases have not been classified as particularly serious cases of tax evasion without further ado. That should change. According to the NRW Ministry of Justice, the Federal Council had already approved such an application by the state in 2020. However, the Bundestag no longer advised him in the old legislative period. Therefore, North Rhine-Westphalia is now bringing the application back to the Bundesrat, announced NRW Justice Minister Peter Biesenbach (CDU). In Cologne alone, 1,300 suspects from the financial sector are currently being investigated.

Sources: “The mirror”with material from DPA and AFP

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