In the Cum-Ex tax scandal, there are two big charges against the Frankfurt tax attorney Hanno Berger, an extradition request and two arrest warrants. The tricky lawyer is regarded by public prosecutors and tax investigators as the “Spiritus Rector”, i.e. the initiator of many share deals at the expense of the state treasury. The lawyer, who fled to Switzerland in November 2012, is now on trial in Germany.
The Federal Supreme Court in Switzerland has, according to information from Suddeutscher Zeitung and WDR agreed to the extradition of Berger. The Federal Supreme Court is the last and final instance in such proceedings in Switzerland. Berger has been in extradition custody there for seven and a half months. Now the 71-year-old can no longer defend himself against being transferred to Germany.
When asked, the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office said they had been informed by the Federal Office of Justice in Switzerland that the extradition had been approved. The North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Justice confirmed this. This is a turning point in the cum-ex scandal. Because of tax evasion in particularly serious cases, Berger should first be brought to justice at the Wiesbaden district court, and later at the Bonn district court. Together with numerous business partners, he is said to have deceived the tax authorities and evaded taxes totaling 392 million euros. Exactly 391 893 343 euros and 96 cents. According to investigators, he faces a long prison sentence. However, the presumption of innocence applies to ongoing proceedings.
Berger himself rejects all allegations. The Frankfurt tax attorney, who used to work for the tax authorities in Hesse, has been campaigning against the German judiciary for years. Berger took action against his prosecutors with administrative complaints and submissions to the courts. During his extradition proceedings in Switzerland, he claimed that the allegation of criminal tax evasion made against him in Germany was “politically motivated”. Various high-ranking members of the executive branch, ie members of the government, would organize a hunt for the alleged “tax robbers” and him in particular, in solidarity with the media.
In the meantime, however, the Federal Court of Justice has made it clear in another procedure that targeted cum-ex deals at the expense of the state treasury are punishable. With the help of tricky lawyers, banks and stock exchange traders have relieved the German tax authorities by an estimated ten billion euros. With a simple and at the same time difficult to understand trick: the banks and their helpers had a once-paid tax on the dividend income reimbursed several times over many years when trading shares with (cum) and without (ex) dividends.
In Germany, more than 1,000 suspects are now being investigated. Numerous well-known banks from Germany and abroad are involved in the scandal. The district court has already imposed prison sentences on two former managers of the Hamburg private bank Warburg.
The Federal Criminal Court rejected all of Berger’s objections
In a previous decision in Switzerland, the Federal Criminal Court there had already declared at the end of 2021 that the mere fact that in Germany the allegations made against Berger and other people and the “possible responsibilities at the administrative and political management level in politics and the media” would be discussed controversially , do not establish a political motivation for criminal prosecution per se.
In view of the situation, there are “no reasons to assume that the criminal proceedings against him would have been initiated for political reasons,” wrote the Federal Criminal Court. Berger’s complaint therefore turns out to be “unfounded on this point too”. The Federal Criminal Court rejected all of Berger’s objections. The Federal Court of last instance has now confirmed this decision.
Hanno Berger fled to Switzerland at the end of 2012 when investigators searched the offices of his then Frankfurt tax office. With his new residence in the Engadin, he was able to evade German justice for years. A good seven months ago, however, the Federal Office of Justice in Bern issued an extradition arrest warrant against Berger at the request of German authorities. Since then, Hanno Berger has been incarcerated in the Cazis Tignez prison in Switzerland. Now he is to be transferred to Germany soon. “We expect him every hour,” says German officials.