On Tuesday, investigators on behalf of the public prosecutor’s office searched the private premises of the former SPD member Johannes Kahrs. He is accused of having been involved in the cum-ex deals.
In connection with the Cum-Ex scandal, investigators searched the house of the former SPD member of the Bundestag Johannes Kahrs on behalf of the Cologne Public Prosecutor. According to the authority, searches in private rooms and in the premises of the Hamburg tax authorities have taken place since Tuesday morning. Because of the initial suspicion of beneficiary, three suspects are being investigated, whose names the investigating authority did not reveal. Several media had previously reported on it.
The previous investigations had given indications of criminally relevant behavior of the accused in connection with cum-ex deals, said the public prosecutor. In view of the ongoing investigations and the allegation of tax evasion, no further information on the content of the proceedings could be given due to tax secrecy.
The searches were therefore used to confiscate “documents relevant to evidence” and “communications relevant to evidence”. In addition to representatives of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, officials from the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia were also involved in the raid.
Kahrs resigned political offices in 2020
With “Cum Ex”, financial actors postponed large blocks of shares with (“cum”) and without “ex” dividend entitlement around the dividend date in a tricky system and then had taxes reimbursed several times. For a long time it was unclear whether this was just brazen exploitation of a loophole in the law or tax evasion.
The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe found cum-ex transactions to be criminal in July. This confirms an earlier judgment by the Bonn Regional Court on two stock exchange traders and the private bank MM Warburg. The BGH was of the opinion that “the assertion of capital gains tax not withheld against the tax authorities” on the basis of such transactions was tax evasion.
Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) came under pressure after the verdict. In the Warburg case he was accused of exerting influence on the financial administration of the Hanseatic city in order to reclaim taxes from the Hamburger Bank because of illegal cum-ex transactions.
The background to this is Scholz’s contacts with Warburg co-owner Christian Olearius, who is said to have tried to avert the repayment claims against the bank totaling 90 million euros. Shortly after a phone call between Olearius and Scholz, the tax authorities dropped a reclaim of 47 million euros.
Olearius is said to have had contact on the matter with Kahrs, who at the time was the spokesman for budget policy for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Kahrs, for many years one of the spokesmen for the conservative Seeeimer Kreis, sat in the Bundestag until last year. In protest against the personnel decision of the SPD parliamentary group head to the office of the defense commissioner, he resigned his mandate and all political offices after 21 years in parliament.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
