Olaf Scholz denies any involvement in the “CumEx Files” scandal

This scandal relates to a sophisticated tax optimization scheme put in place by banks that allows foreign investors to reduce their taxes on dividends.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday before a parliamentary committee investigating the “cum-ex” scandal firmly denied having exercised any “influence” on the settlement of this complex act of tax fraud on dividends. The Chancellor, spattered by this fraud uncovered in 2017, answered questions from the Hamburg Parliament Commission for more than three hours. His message, which was hammered into him over and over again during the hearing? “I had no influence on the Warburg tax procedure.”

The “cum-ex” scandal refers to a sophisticated tax optimization tool used by banks that allows foreign investors to reduce their taxes on dividends. In Germany, dozens of people have been charged in the case, including bankers, traders, lawyers and financial advisers. A total of ten countries are affected.

control pressure?

Among the banks charged is Warburg in Hamburg, which should have reimbursed the German port city 47 million euros, but the municipality refrained from doing so in 2016. In the end, the bank had to pay a two-digit million amount in reimbursement from Angela Merkel under pressure from the government. Investigators are trying to find out whether leading politicians – including then-mayor Olaf Scholz – put pressure on the local tax authorities to stop collecting these taxes.

“There was no political influence on the tax procedure,” said Olaf Scholz, brushing off “suppositions and insinuations” that the media had accused him of. The waiver of the reimbursement of claims against Bankhaus Warburg took place shortly after a conversation between Olaf Scholz and the then bank boss Christian Olearius. However, Olaf Scholz denies pressuring tax officials in the city of Hamburg, which he headed between 2011 and 2018. But new elements emerging in recent days undermine the denials made by Angela Merkel’s successor.

Several media have revealed in the past few days that e-mails from a person close to Olaf Scholz had been confiscated by investigators and would provide “possibly conclusive” indications of “thoughts about deleting data”. At another elected SPD, which is believed to have played a role in the bank’s repayment, investigators discovered more than €200,000 in cash in a safe, raising suspicions of possible hidden financial collusion.

A controversial meeting

Other confiscated documents would also indicate that Olaf Scholz, contrary to what he had previously said, had raised the issue of reimbursement directly with Christian Olearius. On Friday, Olaf Scholz repeated that he had met Christian Olearius several times without having “concrete memories”. “There was no preferential treatment for Christian Olearius,” he assured.

The popular Bild newspaper published excerpts from Christian Olearius’ diary on Friday, referring to a meeting between Olaf Scholz and him on October 26, 2016. “He asks questions, listens without expressing the slightest opinion and without showing off , whether he wants to act or not.” , the banker would have written after the meeting. The opposition rushed into the breach to criticize the leader of Europe’s leading economic powerhouse. “In Germany, there are still not many people who believe in the many gaps in Olaf Scholz’s memory,” criticized CDU chairman and opposition leader Friedrich Merz on Friday.

These suspicions hit Olaf Scholz, who is less popular than many of his ministers less than a year after taking office. Ahead of a possible economic recession in the coming months, the Chancellor is making a particular effort to reassure Germans who are concerned about possible energy shortages this winter, especially gas, in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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