The investigation is intended to clarify whether Chancellor Scholz had any influence in the past.
Hamburg. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had to testify a second time before the Cum-Ex Committee of the Hamburg Parliament. As a witness, he should help clarify the issue whether he or other leading SPD politicians had or had any influence on the fiscal treatment of Warburg Bank involved in the “Cum-Ex” scandal. Scholz denies this.
The chancellor’s second appearance was originally planned as the conclusion of the parliamentary commission of inquiry. The release of the results of the investigation by the Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating the Warburg Bank cum-ex transactions, and press reports of previously kept secret minutes of a 2020 Scholz statement before the Bundestag’s finance committee, however , has given rise to many new questions. The CDU and the Citizenship Left now want to expand the investigation and invite Scholz for a third time.
The backdrop is Scholz’s meetings with the bank’s shareholders in 2016 and 2017. After the town hall meetings, Scholz is said to have given bankers recommendations and exerted influence. Scholz, who acknowledged the meetings with the bankers but says he no longer remembers the content of the conversations, denies any influence.
evaded billions
Cum-ex transactions deal with the multiple refund of a capital gains tax that was paid once. From 2001 to 2016, the German state reportedly lost at least €10 billion in tax revenue from this trick and another €20 billion from similar cum-cum deals.
(ag.)