Kahrs went to the Bafin about Warburg Bank

Created: 01/07/2022Updated: 01/07/2022, 7:35 PM

Former SPD member of the Bundestag, Johannes Kahrs, speaks in the Bundestag.

© Michael Kappeler / dpa / archive image

When the Hamburg Warburg Bank was faced with tax claims worth millions due to the "Cum-Ex" scandal in 2016, the former SPD member of the Bundestag and budget expert Kahrs contacted Bafin.

He wants to know how the bank is doing.

Hamburg - The former SPD member of the Bundestag, Johannes Kahrs, has called on the Hamburg Warburg Bank at the Bafin because of the "Cum-Ex" scandal, which was faced with tax claims worth millions in 2016. On September 1, 2016, he called the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) and asked about the traditional bank, said former Bafin President Felix Hufeld, who was invited as a witness on Friday in the parliamentary committee of inquiry of the Hamburg Parliament. A few weeks later, the former spokesman for the Seeheimer Kreis and budget expert called again.

The investigative committee wants to clarify the accusation that leading SPD politicians may exert influence on the tax treatment of the Warburg Bank. The background to this is the meeting of the then Hamburg Mayor and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz with Max Warburg and Christian Olearius in 2016 and 2017. At that time, there were already investigations against Olearius on suspicion of serious tax evasion.

After the first meeting, the tax office for large companies initially waived additional tax claims in the amount of 47 million euros in 2016 after the limitation period had expired.

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

Scholz had admitted the meetings in the committee of inquiry, but stated that he could not remember the content of the discussions.

However, he ruled out any influence on the tax procedure.

The Hamburg SPD MP Kahrs wanted to know how the bank was doing, said Hufeld, who last year at the insistence of the then Federal Finance Minister Scholz lost his job because of the Wirecard scandal.

Like all other questioners, he told him “that we will not comment on individual supervisory measures,” said Hufeld.

However, Kahrs did not try to get information in an “unseemly way”. Political influence on the Bafin "I rule out", emphasized the former Bafin President. In addition, it is not uncommon for members of parliament, state secretaries or ministers to speak. On the other hand, he never spoke to Warburg and Olearius. The Warburg Bank is important for Hamburg, but rather small for the Bafin.

Prosecutors are now investigating against Kahrs, among others, because of the initial suspicion of favoritism.

Kahrs could have used his influence in favor of the bank.

It is certain that he met with Olearius and arranged talks with Scholz.

In 2017, the SPD Hamburg then, according to its own information, accepted donations of 45,500 euros from Warburg Bank and its affiliated companies, 38,000 of which went to the SPD district of Hamburg-Mitte of the former MP Kahrs.

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In “cum ex” transactions, financial players postponed large blocks of shares with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend entitlements around the dividend cut-off date in a tricky system and then had taxes reimbursed several times. For a long time it was unclear whether this was just brazen exploitation of a loophole in the law or tax evasion. In July 2021, the Federal Court of Justice spoke out of power and classified it as a criminal offense. According to estimates, the state lost a double-digit billion euro amount through "Cum Ex". The Warburg Bank now had to repay 176 million euros to the tax authorities, but continues to take legal action against it.

In addition to the hearing of witnesses and the hearing of an expert, the committee decided unanimously to request the files on the suspended preliminary investigation against Scholz from the Hamburg public prosecutor, among other things because of suspicion of breach of trust. Most recently it became known that Scholz had apparently been informed about the proceedings related to "Cum-Ex", although the public prosecutor had stated in the past that he and those around him had not been informed.

Nevertheless, according to a response from the Senate to a small request from the CDU parliamentary group on March 17, 2021, a lawyer for the then Chancellor candidate Scholz approached the public prosecutor and legitimized himself as his 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 had already started in February 2020 were ultimately stopped on September 7th - three weeks before the federal election - "because the public prosecutor's office did not believe that there were sufficient actual indications of the existence of a criminal offense" - an assessment of the general public prosecutor's office in their appeal decision of November 29th.

dpa