Tax fraud: 46.5 million euros in tax damage: Cum-Ex actor charged

The Cologne public prosecutor has filed an indictment against a British financial actor who is said to have involved CUM-Ex Tax fraud and caused tax damage of 46.5 million euros. As the Cologne public prosecutor announced, it accuses the 54-year-old particularly severe tax evasion in three cases. In 2010, he is said to have processed with other transactions involved through an Irish fund company and a London investment company.

According to the information, he is in custody in Denmark, where he was sentenced to a prison for tax evasion at the end of 2024 for tax evasion. The Cologne public prosecutor points out the presumption of innocence, which also applies to the 54-year-old.

At CUM-Ex finance actors from banks, investment companies and law firms, a confusion with stocks that were pushed back and forth. The tax offices reimbursed taxes that had not been paid at all. This cost the German state and thus the general public a double-digit billion dollar euro amount. The high phase of these business was from 2006 to 2011.

The Bonn district court guilty of the first Cum-ex-complaints in 2020, and in 2021 the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) also regarded the stock transactions as a crime-the reading that it is only a brazen rip off in the legal gray area has been off the table since then.

The Cologne public prosecutor plays a central role in dealing with the largest tax scandal in the Federal Republic, since the Federal Central Tax Office based in Bonn is in its area of ​​responsibility. In recent years, some other processes including judgments have been followed, such as a prison sentence against the tax lawyer and Cum-Ex Architects Hanno Berger.

In the coming years there will be a variety of other processes at the Bonn district court. In the meantime, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office is running a good 130 CUM-Ex procedures, which are aimed at around 1,700 suspects.