Dsseldorf (Reuters) – The Cologne public prosecutor’s office has filed charges against the co-owner and former head of the private bank MMWarburg, Christian Olearius, following media reports in connection with cum-ex transactions.
It is about several cases of serious tax evasion, reported “Sddeutsche Zeitung” and WDR on Tuesday. The banker denies the allegations. Initially, no statement could be obtained from the public prosecutor’s office in Cologne. A spokeswoman for the responsible regional court in Bonn said that the court had received a new cum-ex lawsuit. She did not want to comment on details.
“With payments in 2020, the tax claims for the bank’s stock transactions have been settled,” said an MMWarburg spokesman. “The majority shareholders have paid the amounts from their own funds.” The Warburg Group’s tax assessment of the cum-ex transactions has proven to be incorrect. The members of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board of MMWarburg “disapprove of illegal tax arrangements of any kind”.
Several cum-ex trials have already been conducted before the Bonn Regional Court, including against former employees of the Hamburg bank. In February, a former private banker was sentenced to three years and six months in prison in connection with cum-ex transactions. The cum-ex transactions in which the accused was involved led to tax damage of almost 110 million euros between 2009 and 2010, the court said at the time.
The German state suffered billions in damage from the cum-ex transactions. Investors had the capital gains tax paid once on stock dividends reimbursed several times with the help of banks. To do this, they shifted shares with – i.e. cum – and without – ex – dividend entitlement around the deadline for the dividend payment. The cases had spread widely, which is why there are repeated searches at banks and law firms. In March 2020, in Germany’s first major criminal case, the Bonn court in Bonn imposed suspended sentences on two British stock traders.