Cum-Ex process: prosecutors demand nine years in prison for Hanno Berger

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Hanno Berger before the Bonn regional court

Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa

In the Cum-Ex trial in Bonn, the public prosecutor's office demanded a nine-year prison sentence against former tax attorney Hanno Berger.

Berger was guilty of three cases of particularly serious tax evasion, said public prosecutor Jan Schletz.

In the case of financial transactions, it was about a "bare grip on the state treasury".

In the case of Bergers, there is also a risk of absconding.

Property should also be confiscated from him.

The 72-year-old Berger is the key figure in the largest tax scandal in Germany, in which the tax authorities were cheated by a double-digit billion euro amount.

The former tax official is considered the architect of the convoluted deals, in which taxes were refunded multiple times.

The Federal Court of Justice classified cum-ex deals as a criminal offense last year.

The indictment accuses Berger of having played a key role in the business and recruiting bona fide investors.

The Treasury is said to have suffered damage of 278 million euros, from which Berger is said to have benefited.

Berger has to defend himself against further cum-ex allegations in a separate procedure before the Wiesbaden district court.

In the deals, which peaked between 2006 and 2011, shares with (»cum«) and without (»ex«) dividend rights are shifted back and forth around the dividend record date.

The confusion served to get taxes reimbursed by the Treasury that had not been paid at all.

hey/dpa