A former bank employee has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for his previous work
The Regional Court in Bonn ruled in a case against a former employee of the private bank MM Warburg of Hamburg
Source: dpa-infocom GmbH
For the first time, the banker must be behind bars for “cum-ex” transactions: In a trial in Bonn, a regional court sentenced a former Warburg Bank employee to five years and six months in prison.
IIn another measure regarding the controversial Cum-Ex deals in Bonn, a former Warburg Bank employee was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. A court spokeswoman said the district court found the Germans guilty of tax evasion in five cases on Tuesday.
According to the information, two months of the ruling have already been carried out because the measures have continued over a long period of time. The ruling is not yet legally binding. The attorney general’s office had called for a ten-year prison sentence, and defense attorneys, including former Christian Social Union representative Peter Gawler and former BGH judge Thomas Fischer, have demanded acquittal.
The accused Christian S. Since November. He was charged with 13 tax evasion cases between 2006 and 2013. The indictment is said to have been the right-hand man of Warburg President Christian Olerius, and he knew the controversial deals were not sound.
After announcing the ruling on Tuesday, Warburg Bank stated that the decision will not be surprising after the terms of March 2020. “The primary responsibility of local depository banks and transactional initiators is not sufficiently taken into account,” it said. “It is doubtful whether the judgment will withstand a potential review in light of the numerous requests of prejudice rejected and requests for evidence rejected.”
The bank had already paid out tax claims in connection with the “Cum-Ex” scandal last year, but had always assured that the additional claims were unjustified. It should not be “understood as an admission of guilt.” Dar Al Mal has consistently maintained that it adheres to the legal rules in all transactions.
Left-wing financial expert Fabio de Massi responded enthusiastically to the verdict: “The judge in Bonn District Court has written the legal history,” said de Massi. “Cum-Ex is the biggest tax theft in German history.” Since such deals are still possible, the Bundestag member spoke in favor of an automated IT-supported comparison between requests for capital gains tax refunds and capital gains taxes paid.
Many proceedings related to the Cum-Ex scandal are still underway at the Bonn Regional Court, and the investigations are being assembled at the Cologne Prosecutor’s Office. The last time the court upheld the indictment against a former employee of a Swiss private bank was in May.
In March 2020 in Bonn, the verdict has already been passed in the first criminal case related to the controversial Cum-Ex deals. A district court sentenced two British stock dealers to suspended prison terms. On June 15, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) wants to negotiate the appeal.
Until the first ruling, it was not clear whether “cum-ex” transactions were not acceptable under the tax law only or whether they were also subject to punishment under the law. Around the dividend cut-off date, banks, investors, and funds have pushed stocks with (“cum”) and without entitlement (“ex”) to back and forth dividends. The goal: to recover taxes that have not been paid at all.
