KLN/HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) – According to the public prosecutor’s office, “no amounts of cash found” were secured during a search as part of the Cum-Ex investigations in Hamburg. The Cologne prosecution authorities did not provide any information on Monday about whether any cash was found at all.
According to the Left Chairman in the Hamburg investigative committee, the investigation files clearly show that more than 200,000 euros in cash were found in a locker belonging to the former SPD member of the Bundestag Johannes Kahrs. The “Bild” newspaper reported about it first.
A connection to the scandal surrounding the Warburg Bank cannot initially be derived from this, said MP Norbert Hackbusch of the German Press Agency. However, the findings of the committee so far have made it clear that Kahrs has supported the bank.
The public prosecutor said that money could generally only be secured if there was a concrete suspicion that it came from a criminal offense – and if it was expected that the court would confiscate it later, the authority said in general terms.
The investigation is ongoing, according to prosecutors. “Currently, evidence-relevant documents and data carriers are being evaluated.” It is not yet possible to predict when this will be completed. Kahrs has not yet been available for comment and has not responded to inquiries.
At Kahrs in Hamburg there had been a raid last year in connection with the cum-ex scandal, as dpa had learned from informed circles at the time. Because of the initial suspicion of favoritism against three suspects, investigators had searched the premises of the Hamburg tax authority in addition to private rooms, the Cologne public prosecutor announced at the time. Previous investigations had “given evidence of criminally relevant behavior on the part of the accused in connection with the “cum/ex transactions” of a Hamburg-based credit institution that are the subject of the proceedings”./tam/DP/stw