Cum-ex affair: Chancellor Scholz contradicts himself

Created: 08/18/2022, 12:40 p.m

By: Catherine Brown

When clarifying the Cum-ex affair, Olaf Scholz makes contradictory statements.

Nevertheless, the public prosecutor's office is not investigating against the chancellor.

Munich – Olaf Scholz does not have a good memory.

At least that's how the chancellor himself describes it. He always insists that he can't remember the meetings with the Warburg banker Christian Olearius.

There are said to have been at least three conversations between Scholz, then the SPD mayor of Hamburg, and Olearius - that's what the banker's diary said.

Research by

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now suggests that Olaf Scholz lied about his memory lapses: In July 2020, Scholz said in the finance committee that "an appointment had been made with Olearius, we talked about many things".

This was recorded in the minutes of a confidential meeting of the Finance Committee, which have now been made public.

At the time, Scholz could remember a meeting with the banker from 2017 – and only a few weeks later no longer.

"He has no concrete memories of the respective meetings," says the minutes of the meeting of the Finance Committee on September 9th.

The inconsistencies in the Chancellor's statements raise questions: how much does he have to hide in the cum-ex affair?

Did he hinder the investigation work of the investigators?

Cum-Ex scandal: Olaf Scholz, office manager, plays an important role

In addition, it is now in the room that Scholz and his employees could have deleted data that would have been important for the investigation.

Investigators have examined the mailbox of Jeanette Schwamberger, 47 - she has been Scholz's office manager for years and one of his closest confidants.

In the spring of last year, the committee of inquiry asked whether there were appointments with SPD colleagues Johannes Kahrs, Alfons Pawelczyk and Peter Tschentscher in Scholz's calendar.

All three are accused of playing a role in the Warburg Bank and Cum-ex scandal.

Cum-Ex: The details of the ominous mail - "sort with Olaf"

On April 14, 2021, Jeanette Schwamberger sent an email to Wolfgang Schmidt, also a close confidant of Scholz and today the Minister of the Chancellery.

"First serve is attached," is the subject of the message, which includes a document that officially states that there was no appointment with Kahrs, Pawelczyk or Tschentscher that was related to the Warburg Bank.

The office manager wrote to Schmidt personally: "We should discuss with Olaf how we 'sort' the appointments (meetings/telephone calls) with Kahrs, Pawelczyk and Tschentscher".

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The public prosecutor's office in Cologne classifies this email as suspicious.

In the assessment of the public prosecutor's office it says under the subheading "The topic of data deletion": "The following calendar entries and e-mails are potentially relevant as evidence, since they suggest considerations for deleting data." Olaf Scholz told the

that he was "neither in the calendar query still involved in the sending of the calendar excerpts".

Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit pointed out that Scholz would comment on the allegations in the investigative committee in Hamburg.

Olaf Scholz: No further investigations against the Chancellor

The cum-ex affair is not being investigated against the chancellor himself.

The Hamburg public prosecutor confirmed that they will not initiate any investigations against Scholz.

There is no initial suspicion.

Attorney Gerhard Strate filed criminal charges against Scholz in February.

The accusation: aiding and abetting tax evasion.

Scholz is the focus of the cum-ex scandal because he is said to have met several times in 2016 and 2017 as Hamburg mayor with the shareholders of the Warburg Bank, which was involved in the cum-ex scandal.

Financial players traded blocks of shares around the dividend date, i.e. with (cum) and without (ex) dividend entitlement.

Due to this back and forth, the tax office did not know who was entitled to a tax refund - it was ultimately refunded several times.

The bank stole more than 170 million from the state treasury.

In 2016, the Hamburg tax authorities would have had to collect 47 million euros - but simply let the repayment deadline pass.

He no longer knows whether Scholz had anything to do with it – or he doesn't want to know.