As of: February 27, 2024, 9:53 a.m
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Hanno Berger, tax lawyer, in the courtroom.
© Oliver Berg/dpa
Hanno Berger is considered the architect of cum-ex deals in Germany.
He is defending himself against his conviction for tax evasion in all instances.
Now he lost before the highest German court.
Karlsruhe - The cum-ex architect Hanno Berger also failed before the Federal Constitutional Court in his fight against a long prison sentence for serious tax evasion.
A constitutional complaint from Berger had not been accepted for decision, the highest German court announced on Tuesday in Karlsruhe.
“The constitutional complaint is inadmissible because it was not adequately justified.” The decision is incontestable.
In December 2022, the Bonn regional court sentenced Berger to eight years in prison for three cases of particularly serious tax evasion.
Berger's defense attorney wanted to overturn the verdict because of alleged procedural errors, but the Federal Court of Justice rejected the appeal in the fall.
Berger filed a constitutional complaint against this with the Federal Constitutional Court.
With the defeat in Karlsruhe, his legal options in Germany have now been exhausted; all that remains is to go to the European Court of Human Rights.
Berger is considered the driving force behind the cum-ex stock transactions in Germany, which are said to have cost the tax authorities at least ten billion euros.
In the tax deals, shares with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend claims were moved back and forth between investors.
At the end of the confusion, the tax authorities refunded taxes that had not been paid.
For a long time it was unclear whether cum-ex deals were illegal.
The tax loophole was only closed in 2012.
In 2021, the Federal Court of Justice decided that the transactions should be viewed as tax evasion.
dpa