Status: 03.10.2023, 18:32 p.m.
By: Bona Hyun
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A new document puts Chancellor Scholz in distress in the-Ex affair. © Christian Charisius/dpa (archive image)
New details in the-Ex affair? The public prosecutor's office in Cologne accuses Scholz of "active influence" in the scandal in favor of the bank M.M. Warburg.
Berlin – New documents could put Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) under pressure. In a 20-page paper, which is exclusively available to Stern, details and clues to Scholz's involvement in the-Ex scandal of the Hamburg private bank M.M. Warburg are to be found. An internal note from the public prosecutor's office is explosive, which, according to Stern, speaks of "inconsistencies in Olaf Scholz's statements".
-Ex scandal does not let go of Chancellor Scholz – public prosecutor's office apparently has doubts
"In particular, the conspicuously frequent reference to memory gaps as well as the consistently presented assertion that there was almost no communication or file entries despite the weighty and explosive tax case of M.M. Warburg are hardly comprehensible," Stern quotes an excerpt from the note. According to Stern, the note could prove that the Cologne public prosecutor's office doubts Scholz's account of not remembering meetings with Warburg co-owner Christian Olearius.
This is probably also due to diaries that Olearius, who has to answer to the court because of the-Ex deals, made about his meetings with Scholz. The diaries were seized in March 2018 during a search of Olearius' private rooms. These were confiscated by chief investigator Anne Brorhilker, who is to be legally disempowered. The recordings revealed several meetings between the then mayor of Hamburg and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in 2016 and 2017 with the banker.
What is-Ex all about?
-Ex transactions are illegal stock deals in which shares were traded back and forth around the record date of the dividend payment. Sometimes with (i.e. ""), sometimes without ("ex") dividend entitlement. This approach was repeated so often that the authorities could no longer keep up. For example, it was possible for financial institutions to have a capital gains tax paid once on stock dividends refunded several times.
The Hamburg-based private bank M.M. Warburg was deeply involved in the-Ex scandal. In a ruling confirmed by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), the bank was obliged to repay more than 2021 million euros to the state treasury in 176. Among other things, the former general representative of the bank was sentenced to five and a half years in prison by the Bonn Regional Court in 2021, and the owners are still being investigated.
Documents incriminate Scholz in-Ex affair – diaries to prove meeting with Olearius
Background: Olearius is said to have sought help from Scholz several times in 2016 because the tax authorities in Hamburg had made a high demand for millions of euros for-Ex transactions to Warburg Bank. Immediately after one of the meetings between the two, Scholz's then financial administration decided to waive the recovery of the stolen millions. According to Stern, the "diary entries" in the Cologne decree "could speak for active influence by Olaf Scholz".
Scholz already admitted during a questioning in the Bundestag Finance Committee in July 2020 that he had met Olearius in the matter of-ex transactions. Scholz vehemently denied allegations that he had exerted influence on the decision of the tax authorities. During his two interrogations before the investigative committee of the Hamburg Parliament, he also stated that he could not remember the conversations with Olearius exactly. So far, there is no evidence of political influence.
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Chancellor Scholz has been following the-ex transactions of Hamburg's Warburg Bank for a long time. At the heart of the matter is the question of whether Scholz as First Mayor and Peter Tschentscher (SPD) as Finance Senator at the time exerted political influence on the tax treatment of Warburg Bank. The Hamburg-based private bank M.M. Warburg was involved in the-Ex scandal and had earned millions as a result. So far, it has not been possible to prove this legally. (bohy)