With trickery in securities deals investors are said to have cheated the state for years by billionsums. Now, for the first time, two former bankers have to answer for cum-ex-tax deals in court. The two British investment bankers Martin S. and Nicholas D. are said to have brought the German state according to the charge with trickery for stock transactions between 2006 and 2011 by about 440 million euros.
For this they must now answer to the 12th Grand Criminal Court of the district court of Bonn. The prosecution accuses them of involvement in 34 cases of particularly serious tax evasion - in one case, it remained in the attempt. The defendants face imprisonment of up to ten years. But they have testified extensively and hope for leniency.
Also representatives of five money houses must testify before the judges at the regional court Bonn. According to insiders, these are the holding company of the Hamburg private bank MM Warburg, its subsidiary Warburg Invest, funds of the French bank Société Generale and the US institution BNY Mellon as well as the Hamburg capital management company Hansainvest. As compensation for the alleged damage, the court may collect assets from the banks.
In the prototype case in Bonn against the two former HVB bankers, according to the court's plans, it is to be clarified in principle on 32 negotiation days until 9 January, to what extent the cum-ex-transactions were punishable. A verdict should be followed by numerous other lawsuits.
Only in August, investigators had searched the premises of a Deutsche Börse subsidiary on suspicion of cum-ex-trickery.
photo gallery
4 pictures
Cum and Ex: Simplified model of a dividend dealDozens of journalists from all over Europe are following the process kick-off. "Cum-Ex" is considered the biggest tax scandal in German history. Investors used a gap in the law to bounce the state over billions of dollars over years. Around the dividend record date, shares with ("cum") and no ("ex") dividend entitlement were moved back and forth between several participants. In the end, the treasury was no longer sure who owned the papers. Thus, tax offices reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid at all.
The loophole was closed in 2012, tax experts had long considered the shops as a legal trick.
(File number: 62 KLs 1/19)
