Anne Brorhilker is leading the investigation into the cum-ex scandal – so far. Because now the senior public prosecutor is leaving the judiciary. She is continuing her fight against financial crime differently.
Cum-Ex chief investigator Anne Brorhilker has resigned – and is criticizing the way the tax scandal is being dealt with. Brorhilker had asked for her dismissal from her position as a civil servant, said a spokesman for the Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office on Monday in response to a DPA request. Previously had . The authority did not comment on Brorhilker’s reasons. The senior public prosecutor played a central role in the prosecution of cum-ex tax fraudsters.
Brorhilker told WDR: “I have always been a prosecutor with heart and soul, especially in the area of economic crime, but I am not at all satisfied with the way financial crime is prosecuted in Germany.”
Anne Brorhilker criticizes politics
Eleven years after the first cum-ex cases became known, politicians have still not reacted adequately. Tax theft has not stopped by a long shot; there are Cum-Ex successor models. The reason is a lack of controls over what is happening at banks and on the stock markets. She is continuing the fight against financial crime elsewhere: Brorhilker announced to WDR that in the future she would like to work on the fight against financial crime as managing director of the non-governmental organization “Citizens’ Movement Financial Transition”. Her aim is to get to the root of the problem. “Anne Brorhilker’s change to financial transition is a declaration of war on financial criminals and their supporters”, .
Even more than a decade after its peak, the Cum-Ex scandal has still not been comprehensively investigated under criminal law – there are gaps, for example, in the role of well-known major banks and former state banks such as WestLB. The state lost even more money than with Cum-Ex in related Cum-Cum deals, which were more widespread and hardly ever dealt with legally. The Mannheim financial scientist Christoph Spengel estimates the tax damage between 2000 and 2020 at 28.5 billion euros.
Cum-Ex scandal led to change in law
In around 120 cum-ex investigations, 1,700 suspects were investigated in Cologne under Brorhilker’s leadership. The Cum-Ex fraud, which had its peak period from 2006 to 2011, is estimated to have defrauded the German state of a double-digit billion sum. The Cum-Ex fraud is considered the largest tax scandal in the Federal Republic.
In the tax deals, shares with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend claims were moved back and forth between financial players in a short period of time. In the confusion, the tax authorities unknowingly refunded taxes that had not even been paid. It was only with a change in the law that took effect in January 2012 that the deals were put to a stop.
Note: This article has been updated several times.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
