As of: February 23, 2024, 5:02 a.m
By: Christoph Gschoßmann
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Olaf Scholz last August as a “witness” during a meeting of the parliamentary investigative committee “Cum-Ex” in Hamburg.
© Christian Charisius/dpa
There is new excitement in the Cum-Ex affair.
The focus is on a laptop with presumably explosive emails.
Update from February 22nd, 11:40 a.m.:
The Hamburg regional court has prohibited
Stern
from disseminating the theory that the SPD chief investigator for the Hamburg citizenship on the Cum-Ex scandal, Steffen Jänicke, had hidden laptops with evidence or that the laptops in question had disappeared.
The court stated in a decision that there was a lack of “connecting facts” for these assessments.
It is also undisputed that the investigative committee instructed Jänicke on October 16th to “temporarily prevent members of parliament from accessing the laptops”.
Transparency note: As a result of this decision, the editorial team has adjusted the title of this article and parts of the previous update.
Update from November 3rd, 10:10 p.m.:
Irritation in the “Cum-Ex” investigative committee of the Hamburg citizenship over the interim whereabouts of two laptops with thousands upon thousands of presumably explosive emails: The devices were originally stored in a safe.
The devices are now in other “safe rooms,” it is said.
The head of the working staff, Steffen Jänicke (SPD), explained this on Friday at the meeting of the representatives, said CDU chairman Richard Seelmaecker to the
German Press Agency
.
However, in the evening, the SPD chairman in the committee, Milan Pein, called Seelmaecker's statements that the laptops were now back in the safe false.
They are still in a secured cupboard in Jänicke's office.
The chairman of the investigative committee, Mathias Petersen (SPD), dismissed speculation that the chief investigator Jänicke, appointed by the SPD, had hidden the laptops as “complete nonsense”.
Laptops in the Cum-Ex Committee: The whereabouts of the devices are currently unclear
First report from November 3rd, 12:09 p.m.:
Hamburg - There has been a scandal in the Cum-Ex committee dealing with the scandal surrounding Chancellor Olaf Scholz: The chief investigator appointed by the SPD is hiding two laptops with more than 700,000 sensitive emails .
He had previously taken them from a safe in Hamburg.
There is criticism from the opposition.
According to information from
Stern
magazine and
WAZ
, the lead investigator, Steffen Jänicke, took two devices, which contained, among other things, emails from Scholz's office manager and Hamburg's mayor Peter Tschentscher, from the safe in downtown Hamburg.
Members of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry called for by the Union and employees have so far been able to view them under strict supervision.
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According to reports, Jänicke told the committee representatives that he had “ordered that access to the files and the working staff with the evidence would initially be suspended.”
CDU chairman Richard Seelmaecker explained to
Stern
and
WAZ
that he did not know where the devices were “and whether they were safe there”.
The laptops were removed from the safe without consultation.
“We don’t know whether they have been manipulated or read in the meantime.”
SPD man hides evidence: “The laptops are in a safe place”
It is unclear whether Jänicke violated the rules on maintaining secrecy with his own initiative.
These state: “The files and other documents are to be stored in file and reading rooms in the respective building to be determined by the working staff.” According to the research, Jänicke's office does not have the same security precautions as the vault.
Left chairman Norbert Hackbusch was “extremely astonished at this handling of sensitive data”.
When asked by
Stern
, committee chairman Mathias Petersen also explained that the laptops would be stored “in the working staff in compliance with confidentiality regulations”.
Hackbusch still demands: “It has to be clarified now: Where are the laptops?
Were they safe all along?
And why weren't we informed immediately?" Whether Jänicke is trustworthy was already put to the test in 2022: The Hamburg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution had cast doubt on him because of family connections to Russia.
A compromise was ultimately to leave him in office without giving him access to sensitive data or the vault.
He obviously ignored that.
He is said to have said to Seelmaecker.
“Don’t worry, the laptops are in a suitable location.”
Cum-ex affair involving Olaf Scholz: It's about 47 million euros
Scholz has been involved in the Cum-Ex affair since the end of 2016. At that time, after discussions between Warburg banker Christian Olearius and the then Mayor of Hamburg Scholz, the Hamburg tax administration is said to have refrained from reclaiming 47 million euros from Warburg that were based on illegal Cum-Ex tax refunds based.
Scholz admitted the meetings with Olearius, but cited gaps in his memory regarding the content of these meetings.
Scholz ruled out any influence on the tax proceedings against the Warburg Bank.
In cum-ex transactions, investors moved shares back and forth around the dividend record date with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend entitlement.
As a result, tax offices refunded capital gains taxes that had not been paid.
The state suffered damage estimated at ten billion euros.
(cgsc with dpa)