Deka headquarters in Frankfurt (archive image): In the sights of the Cologne public prosecutor
Photo: DPA
In the cum-ex deal scandal, investigators searched the offices of DekaBank in Frankfurt.
A spokesman for the money house confirmed the measure in connection with stock trading transactions, but did not comment on it.
The public prosecutor's office in Cologne said that they had been executing search warrants against a bank in Frankfurt and an auditing company in a cum-ex procedure since Tuesday.
She didn't name names.
The private homes of eight suspects would also be searched.
In addition to representatives of the Cologne public prosecutor's office, around 110 investigators were involved in the searches.
Cum-ex deals are tax evasion
Numerous banks are involved in the Cum-Ex scandal.
Investors used a loophole in the law to cheat the Treasury out of taxes for years.
Around the dividend record date, several participants pushed shares with (»cum«) and without (»ex«) dividend rights back and forth.
In the end, tax offices reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid at all.
According to estimates, the state suffered damage in the tens of billions as a result of the business.
In 2012 the tax loophole was closed.
In the summer of 2021, the Federal Court of Justice determined that cum-ex transactions are to be classified as tax evasion.
Several public prosecutors and courts are working on the cum-ex scandal, there are always raids.
The Cologne public prosecutor recently searched the offices of the US investment bank Merrill Lynch and the British Barclays Bank in Frankfurt am Main.
A driving force behind the cum-ex deals in this country, the tax attorney Hanno Berger, has to answer on suspicion of tax evasion before the regional court in Bonn and the regional court in Wiesbaden.
mic/Reuters
