In the Cum-Ex scandal is the first time an accused in custody. It is a lawyer who has worked at a large international law firm, said the Attorney General Frankfurt. He was accused of involvement in tax evasion. The man was in custody last Friday. The case was previously reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung and WDR.
The man was arrested at his place of residence in Hessen, said a spokesman for the Attorney General. Details were not mentioned. Nationwide, it was the first arrest of a lawyer for "cum-ex" deals.
The cum-ex-affair is considered the biggest tax scandal in the history of the Federal Republic. Banks, funds and advisers are said to have been using complex public-sector stock deals over the years for reimbursement of taxes that no one had previously paid. The damage goes into the billions. In Bonn, two former stock traders are now in court.
That's how the trickery worked
For cum-ex-deals investors took advantage of a gap in the law. 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 authorities were no longer sure who owned the papers. Tax offices reimbursed capital gains tax that had not been paid at all. In 2012, the tax loophole was closed. Various prosecutors have been investigating the complex for years.