Once he worked as a high-ranking tax official for the state – later he advertised a business model to the rich that cheated the tax authorities out of billions. Now a second verdict against Hanno Berger is imminent.
It’s about the allegation of serious tax evasion, complex share transactions in the billions and a major financial loss for the tax authorities: In the scandal about cum-ex share deals, a judgment against the key figure Hanno Berger is expected today at the Wiesbaden district court.
The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of being involved in complex cum-ex stock deals from 2006 to 2008 that led to unauthorized tax refunds of 113 million euros. In the transactions mediated by Berger (72), Dax shares worth 15.8 billion euros were traded via former employees of Hypovereinsbank. The beneficiary was a real estate investor who has died in the meantime. The profits were divided.
Long prison sentence required
The public prosecutor’s office has demanded a prison sentence of ten years and six months for serious tax evasion in three cases – that would be more than in a first cum-ex judgment against Berger at the Bonn Regional Court with less damage. He should also pay back proceeds of the crime in the millions. The defense pleaded for acquittal: Cum-Ex deals were not prohibited at the time.
In December, the Bonn Regional Court sentenced Berger to eight years in prison for tax evasion. In the case of a judgment in Wiesbaden, a total sentence of up to 15 years can be imposed by subsequent decision. However, the Bonn judgment is not yet final. Berger has appealed to the Federal Court of Justice.
Citizens’ movement Finanzwende: Clear up the scandal more decisively
The association Bürgerbewegung Finanzwende has called for a more consistent processing of the tax scandal surrounding cum-ex stock transactions. “We finally have to pull out all the stops to decisively advance the investigation and bring all the perpetrators to justice,” said board member Gerhard Schick of the dpa news agency. One is only at the beginning of the legal clarification “more than 10 years after the stoppage of the business”, criticized the former Greens member of the Bundestag.
“For far too long, cum-ex perpetrators have been able to take the treasury unmolested,” Schick complained. The trials against Hanno Berger are therefore an important signal, he said before an expected judgment by the Wiesbaden district court against the tax attorney today. Berger is considered the architect of the cum-ex deals, in which banks and investors never had paid capital gains tax refunded and cheated the state by at least ten billion euros.
Million profit in an advisory capacity
They used a loophole in the law at the time. Around the dividend record date, shares with and without dividend rights were pushed back and forth between several participants. At the end of the confusion, tax offices reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid at all. The tax loophole was only closed in 2012. In the summer of 2021, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that cum-ex transactions are to be classified as tax evasion.
Berger is considered the driving force behind the cum-ex deals in Germany, which peaked between 2006 and 2011 and were widespread. Berger used to control financial institutions as a tax officer, later he switched sides and became self-employed as a tax lawyer. He praised cum-ex deals with banks and the wealthy as legally secure tax optimization, advised on the construction and earned millions from it. Berger had repeatedly rejected the allegations and saw himself as the victim of a judicial scandal.
Source: Stern
