Tax scandal
Two new cum-ex charges in Frankfurt
The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office is pushing ahead with its investigation into cum-ex stock deals. It’s about the Fortis Bank case, in which a judgment has already been made – and a high tax loss.
The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office is bringing further charges in the billion-dollar cum-ex tax scandal. It is about suspicion of tax evasion in two particularly serious cases. Two Germans aged 62 and 59 are accused, the authorities announced.
This is the second charge in the case surrounding the Benelux bank Fortis, in which a managing director was sentenced to three years and three months in prison in November 2023. In order for a trial to take place, the Frankfurt regional court must approve the charges, which can take months.
The two defendants from Frankfurt am Main and Neu-Isenburg are accused of having taken part in cum-ex transactions in a “gang-like structure” in consultation with other accomplices in 2008 and 2009. Among them is an “already convicted managing director of a banking institution in Frankfurt am Main”.
Tax damage of more than 45 million euros
According to the Attorney General’s Office, the accused used an investment company they ran based in Gibraltar to carry out stock transactions “within artificially created trading chains with the aim of obtaining unlawful tax credits.”
In cum-ex deals, which peaked between 2006 and 2011, shares were passed between several parties around the dividend record date. As a result, tax certificates were issued for the reimbursement of capital gains tax and solidarity surcharge, even though no taxes had been paid. Tax offices incorrectly refunded taxes. In this specific case, the tax authorities are said to have suffered damage of more than 45 million euros.
In the entire Cum-Ex tax scandal, the German state is estimated to have missed out on at least ten billion euros. The legal loophole was closed in 2012. In 2021, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) decided that cum-ex transactions should be viewed as tax evasion.
Announcement from the Attorney General’s Office December 12, 2024
dpa
Source: Stern
