Tax scandal for share deals
Cum-ex character Hanno Berger without regrets: “was never in the wrong”
Loss of billions for the state, long prison for Berger – but he sees himself as a victim. He attacks the judiciary from prison and raises serious accusations against ex-prosecutor Anne Brorhilker.
Hanno Berger, the key figure in the Cum-Ex Tax scandal, does not see himself as a perpetrator despite the final conviction of high prison terms. “I was never wrong,” says the detained 74-year-old to the “Handelsblatt”. Berger writes about his defense in the correctional facility in Schwalmstadt in Hesse. “I have not been doing anything else for twelve years,” he said. CUM-EX share businesses, in which banks and other investors have been reimbursed by the state on dividends on dividends, he continues to be lawful.
Serious allegations to ex-prosecutor Brorhilker
The former tax lawyer Berger has severe criticism of the legal processing. The search of the Cologne public prosecutor in his private rooms in 2014 described Berger as “shame for the rule of law”. The officials “didn’t even want to know what was in the laws”. The then Cologne public prosecutor Anne Brorhilker was biased: “At the time, in 2014, she had already recognized at first glance that the CUM-EX businesses were crimes. At first glance!”
Berger is considered a pioneer for the CUM-EX actors in Germany, with which the tax authorities were cheated by at least ten billion euros. The business was widespread in its high phase between 2006 and 2011 at many banks, the scandal is considered the greatest tax fraud in German history.
Central role of “Mr. Cum-Ex”
Berger praised the business at banks and wealthy as a legally secure tax optimization, advised the construction and earned millions. Later “Mr. Cum-Ex” fled to Switzerland before the judiciary until Berger was delivered to Germany. The regional courts Bonn and Wiesbaden sentenced him to long prison terms for severe tax evasion. Both debts were confirmed by the Federal Court of Justice.
At CUM-Ex-deals, shares with (CUM) and without (ex) distribution claim between investors were pushed back and forth. In the end, tax offices reimbursed tax offices on dividends that had not been paid at all. Politicians only reacted in 2012 with a change in the law. In 2021, the BGH decided that CUM-Ex Court is to be seen as tax evasion.
Berger has overwhelmed himself with his former law firm Kai-Uwe Steck, who was sentenced to a key to a key witness in the Cum-Ex scandal. Berger speaks of “false statements” that stuck in court. His information is legally “either irrelevant or untrue”. According to Berger, Berger has filed a criminal complaint against Steck. He doesn’t think of retreat. “I fight. The thing is not over yet.”
dpa
Source: Stern
