Cum-Ex deals
Cum-ex investigator in court for industrial espionage
The Stuttgart lawyer Seith used internal bank documents to prove crooked investment transactions that caused billions in damage to state coffers. The Swiss justice system still puts him on trial.
The lawyer Eckart Seith, celebrated in Germany as the person who solved the dubious cum-ex transactions, is again on trial in Switzerland for economic espionage. The defense called for an acquittal on Monday. Former Cologne public prosecutor Anne Brorhilker, among others, demonstrated in front of the high court in Zurich to acquit the lawyer from Stuttgart.
With his research, Seith has uncovered crooked transactions that cost billions in damage to the public purse. However, the Swiss public prosecutor sees it as a criminal offense that he obtained internal documents from a Swiss bank and presented them to the German judiciary. She accuses him of economic espionage and demands a prison sentence of more than three years.
“If serious crimes have taken place and a third party finds out about them and informs the authorities, that cannot be reprehensible,” Seith told the German Press Agency before the start of the court hearing.
Criminal cum-ex transactions
Brorhilker described Seith’s tips as crucial to getting the Cum-Ex investigation rolling. In Germany, numerous proceedings have been and are ongoing against actors who promised investors dream returns with cum-ex investments. The basis was the multiple payment of a capital tax that had only been paid once due to dubious stock transfers.
Brorhilker was Cum-Ex chief investigator at the Cologne public prosecutor’s office. She left the civil service with sharp criticism of what she saw as the inadequate handling of the tax scandal. Today she is co-managing director of the Finanzwende association, which advocates for fair, stable and sustainable financial markets.
Switzerland and financial market crime
Seith was largely acquitted in the first trial in Zurich in 2019, but the case went through further instances. He has now ended up back at the high court. Seith expects an acquittal. “Switzerland would otherwise present itself as a haven for international financial market crime,” he told the dpa.
The incidents relate to the year 2013. Since then, damages have been sought in Germany for a client who had lost 50 million euros through the cum-ex investments brokered by the Swiss bank J. Safra Sarasin.
dpa
Source: Stern
