On Friday, Olaf Scholz is to be questioned again before the Hamburg investigative committee on the “Cum-Ex” scandal. His successor in the town hall does not believe that this will close memory gaps.
Hamburg’s First Mayor Peter Tschentscher has shown understanding for the memory gaps expressed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (both SPD) before the “Cum-Ex” committee of inquiry. The meetings with the shareholders of the Warburg Bank involved in the “Cum-Ex” scandal were years ago, “you can’t remember all the details of the talks,” Tschentscher told the “Bild” newspaper (Monday).
The background is Scholz’s meetings with Warburg Bank shareholders Christian Olearius and Max Warburg in 2016 and 2017. At the time, Olearius was already being investigated for tax evasion in connection with “Cum-Ex” transactions.
After the first two meetings, the Hamburg tax office for large companies had, contrary to original plans, allowed a reclaim of over 47 million euros of wrongly refunded taxes against the bank to run into the statute of limitations. A year later, 43 million euros were only reclaimed after the Federal Ministry of Finance intervened shortly before the statute of limitations expired.
An investigative committee of the Hamburg Parliament is to clarify whether leading SPD politicians have influenced the tax case. Scholz had confirmed the meetings during his first hearing before the committee last year, but said nothing about the content of the talks because he could not remember. However, he ruled out any influence. Tschentscher, then finance senator, also rejected the corresponding allegations as unfounded during his interrogation.
Scholz is to be questioned again by the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry (PUA) on Friday. “He will testify again truthfully,” Tschentscher told the “Bild”.
The meetings between Scholz and the bank shareholders are said to have been initiated by former Interior Senator Anton Pawelczyk and the then member of the Bundestag Johannes Kahrs. The Cologne public prosecutor’s office is investigating both SPD politicians and the former Warburg Bank officer from the tax office for large companies on suspicion of encouraging tax evasion in connection with “cum-ex” transactions.
Where did the money in the locker come from?
According to members of the investigative committee, the investigative files show that more than 200,000 euros in cash were found in a Kahrs safe deposit box during a raid in September last year.
Tschentscher could not say anything about the origin of the money. “I have no knowledge of the investigation status of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office and can therefore not evaluate it. The process must be clarified between the public prosecutor’s office and Mr. Kahrs,” he told the newspaper.
However, he does not see any effects on the assessment of the new knowledge gained by the PUA through the investigation files. “It does not change the evidence of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry that there was no political influence on the decision of the tax administration,” said Tschentscher. “All the witnesses said so unanimously.” When asked by the “Bild” journalists whether he had participated in a “conspiracy in favor of the Warburg Bank” together with Scholz, he said: “Definitely not.”
In “cum-ex” transactions, blocks of shares were moved back and forth by several participants around the dividend record date with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) a right to a dividend. As a result, tax offices reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid at all. The state suffered billions in damage.
According to a court order, Warburg Bank settled all tax claims asserted against it by the tax authorities because of the “Cum-Ex” transactions in 2020. However, she continues to try to take legal action against the Hamburg tax assessments.
Source: Stern
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