Additional support for Cum-Ex investigations planned at the Hamburg public prosecutor's office

According to the Senate's response, a second head of the public prosecutor's office is to be added in the future. An economic advisor and an investigative group from the Hamburg tax office are also available to help. The IT forensics is carried out by an external expert. “Incidentally, no special investigative group is planned at the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office,” explained the Senate.

Peak phase of cum-ex business from 2006 to 2011

In the tax fraud, financial actors moved shares with ("cum") and without ("ex") dividend entitlement back and forth in a nested system in order to get refunds for taxes that had not been paid. The peak phase of this system was between 2006 and 2011. According to estimates, the tax authorities and thus the general public lost a double-digit billion euro amount.

The Cologne public prosecutor's office in particular excelled in investigating cum-ex cases. They are responsible for the Federal Central Tax Office in neighboring Bonn, which is affected by cum-ex transactions. However, the Hamburg public prosecutor's office could have taken action years ago - the fact that they didn't did so angered some critics.

Warburg Bank and HSH Nordbank involved in scandal

Because Hamburg is a location for this type of criminal activity, institutions like the Warburg Bank were involved. Just last Wednesday, the tax court rejected a lawsuit from the bank and thus declared interest on arrears amounting to around ten million euros to be legal. The Warburg Bank was of the opinion that its cum-ex transactions were not tax evasion at all and that it therefore did not have to pay any interest on evasion.

The fact that the now dissolved HSH Nordbank, the former Landesbank of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, also had a hand in cum-ex transactions has been known since 2014 at the latest: At that time, the bank initiated tax refunds of around 126 million euros to compensate for tax losses.

Meanwhile, “cum-cum businesses” are also in their sights

In the meantime, the investigation into the largest tax fraud in the Federal Republic is not only about cum-ex, but also related cum-cum transactions. According to the information, the investigation now taken over by the Hamburg public prosecutor's office also involves “cum-cum designs”.

AfD parliamentary group leader Dirk Nockemann called the staffing for such a procedure irresponsible. “Especially with Cum-Ex, the impression should not be given that education fails due to inadequate resources.” Red-Green must dispel any impression that a process of this magnitude could be slowed down by inadequate equipment.