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Danyal Bayaz: Green-black cabinet should give permission to testify
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
Is Olaf Scholz in the Hamburg investigative committee on the Cum-Ex scandal now under more pressure?
The Finance Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Danyal Bayaz, should at least contribute to the answer to the question of whether the current chancellor played a role in the tax treatment of the Warburg Bank.
The Greens politician should testify as a witness in the Hamburg investigative committee on the affair - and the state cabinet in Stuttgart should give him permission to testify, as the dpa news agency reports, citing government circles.
SPD politician Scholz is also said to testify as a witness in the committee for the third time - as well as numerous other politicians who were on the Bundestag Finance Committee on July 1, 2020, including today's Green Family Minister Lisa Paus and FDP Finance State Secretary Florian Toncar.
Bayaz was also a member of the Finance Committee of the Bundestag in 2020 and was present on the committee when the then Federal Finance Minister and current Chancellor made statements.
Waiver of payment worth tens of billions
Several public prosecutors and courts nationwide have been investigating and negotiating for years to deal with one of the biggest tax scandals in German post-war history with the cum-ex deals.
In 2021, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that these transactions are punishable.
In Hamburg, Scholz, as Hamburg's first mayor, met the co-owners of the Warburg Bank, who wanted to prevent millions of euros in additional taxes.
However, Scholz has denied any influence in previous hearings in the committee.
He had referred to gaps in memory.
In the Warburg case, the Hamburg tax authorities had initially waived the tens of billions of euros in payment, which meant that the claim was initially considered statute-barred.
It was only in connection with a court judgment that a payment was finally made.
In cum-ex deals, investors used a loophole in the law to cheat the German state out of money for years.
Around the dividend record date, several participants pushed shares with (»cum«) and without (»ex«) dividend rights back and forth.
As a result, the tax authorities reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid at all.
The state suffered billions in damage.
apr/dpa