Chancellor under pressure?

A spicy turn in the cum-ex affair - "Wonder how Scholz got wind ..."

Created: 12/30/2021, 05:21 AM

New details from the "Cum-Ex" affair put Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz under pressure.

(Archive image) © Christian Charisius / dpa

Chancellor Olaf Scholz came under more criticism because of the cum-ex scandal.

With new knowledge about the process, Scholz could now get into the line of fire again.

Hamburg - Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz could come under pressure due to a new turn in the "Cum-Ex" scandal: The former mayor of Hamburg was obviously informed about the preliminary investigations of the public prosecutor's office in the "Cum-Ex" affair - contrary statements Despite.

Scholz illegally informed about "Cum-Ex" proceedings: Leak in the Hamburg judiciary?

As the response of the red-green Senate to one of the small inquiries from the CDU parliamentary group, which is available to the German Press Agency, shows that a lawyer for the SPD politician had repeatedly urged the Hamburg authorities to discontinue the proceedings.

However, Scholz had not been officially informed of the proceedings that had since been discontinued.

"I wonder how Scholz got wind of the investigation at all if the public prosecutor hadn't informed him at all," said CDU MP Richard Seelmaecker.

Apparently there is a leak in the Hamburg judiciary.

According to the Senate, Scholz was never given a fair hearing in the preliminary investigation because there were insufficient factual indications of the existence of a criminal offense.

The public prosecutor has stated in the past that Scholz was not included in the preliminary investigation and that his environment was not informed.

Scholz's lawyer called for the proceedings to be discontinued: evidence of premature information?

According to the Senate, a lawyer for the then candidate for chancellor approached the public prosecutor for the first time on March 17, 2021 and legitimized himself as the latter's legal representative.

On April 22nd, he then sent a brief requesting the immediate termination of the proceedings.

Further pleadings with the same request followed on July 5th and August 5th.

According to the Senate, the preliminary investigations that began in February 2020 were discontinued on September 7, 2021 - three weeks before the federal election - "because the public prosecutor's office was of the opinion that there were no sufficient actual indications of the existence of a criminal offense" - a Assessment that the Public Prosecutor's Office followed in its appeal decision of November 29th.

After the cum-ex affair: Scholz in the investigation committee

Eight days after the lawyer first appeared, Scholz had testified as a witness in the parliamentary “Cum-Ex” investigation committee of the Hamburg citizenship.

The committee wanted to clarify a possible political influence of leading SPD politicians on the tax treatment of the Warburg Bank.

The background to this are meetings between the then Hamburg Mayor Scholz and the Warburg owners Max Warburg and Christian Olearius, who was already being investigated on suspicion of serious tax evasion.

In the committee, Scholz stated that he could not remember the content of the discussions.

But he ruled out any influence.

After the 2016 meeting, the Hamburg tax authorities waived additional tax claims for 2009 and 2010 in the amount of EUR 47 million against the bank after the limitation period had expired.

Another 43 million euros were only requested in 2017 after the Federal Ministry of Finance intervened.