Scholz has to go to the Cum-Ex investigative committee: "The time for cheating is over"
Created: 08/19/2022, 05:47
By: Felix Durach
On Friday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz testified again before the U-Committee of the Hamburg Parliament about the Cum-Ex scandal.
The developments in the news ticker.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) testified again on Friday before the investigative committee of the Hamburg Parliament on the subject of cum-ex.
The CDU and leftists in the Hamburg Parliament have great expectations of the Chancellor's statements.
This
news ticker
about Olaf Scholz's testimony before the
Cum-Ex investigative committee
is updated regularly.
Hamburg – The possible involvement of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the cum-ex scandal surrounding the Hamburg private bank Warburg stains the political vest of the head of government like no other affair.
Just this week, media reports were published again that do not cast a good light on the Chancellor.
According to a Stern
report
- which quotes from confidential documents - the Chancellor is said to have made contradictory statements in the investigative committees.
As reported by NDR,
Stern
and
Manager Magazin
, the public prosecutor's office also secured a suspicious email in Scholz's office manager's mailbox.
Scholz before the Cum-Ex investigative committee in Hamburg – Chancellor invited as a witness
On Friday, the 64-year-old will be asked again about his possible role in the Warburg-Bank cum-ex business.
CDU and leftists in the Hamburg Parliament have great expectations of the second hearing of the Chancellor.
"I expect from Mr. Scholz that he finally unpacks and makes a clean sweep," said the chairman of the CDU, Richard Seelmaecker, the German Press Agency.
Nobody believes in the memory gaps that the chancellor refers to in connection with meetings with the shareholders of the Warburg Bank involved in the scandal when he was mayor of Hamburg.
Olaf Scholz (SPD), Federal Minister of Finance and former First Mayor of Hamburg, is following the debate at the current hour in the plenary session in the Bundestag on the Cum Ex tax deals.
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
The CDU and the left are increasing the pressure - the "time of cheating" is over
He expects Scholz to answer the questions truthfully and precisely "and not rumble or evade," said Seelmaecker.
"Unlike in other situations, he is obliged to tell the truth in the committee of inquiry." Last week, the Chancellor repeatedly evaded questions about Cum-Ex at the summer press conference and pointed out that he already had everything in the committees of inquiry said.
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"The time when Scholz & Co. cheated through is now finally over," said Left Chairman Norbert Hackbusch.
"It is said that important information was withheld from the committee of inquiry." However, the chancellor himself has already dampened expectations of his statement.
Scholz said in his summer press conference that the committee had not found any evidence of influence since it was set up at the end of 2020.
"I am sure that this knowledge will not be changed," said Scholz.
Cum Ex
In “cum-ex” transactions, financial players shifted blocks of shares with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend entitlement around the dividend date in a complicated system and then had taxes reimbursed multiple times.
The state lost billions in this way.
In July 2021, the Federal Court of Justice made it clear that this was not just a matter of exploiting a legal loophole, but of criminal tax evasion.
Political influence?
Meeting between Scholz and Olearius in focus
The investigative committee is dealing, among other things, with the content of at least three meetings between the then Mayor of Hamburg, Scholz, and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Warburg-Bank, Christian Olearius.
Shortly after one of the meetings, the Hamburg tax authorities decided to waive the reclaim of taxes amounting to 47 million euros that had not been paid in the context of cum-ex transactions.
Scholz is therefore accused of political influence.
The Chancellor has so far claimed not to be able to remember the meetings.
The taxes due have now been collected by the state.
(fd with dpa)
