In the tax scandal surrounding cum-ex share deals, a new trial is scheduled to begin today at the Frankfurt Regional Court. There, two former employees of Maple Bank and a former high-ranking tax attorney from the major law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have to answer for allegations of serious tax evasion or aiding and abetting. According to the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office, the trial is for the first time about the criminal liability of a consultant in cum-ex deals. Around 20 hearings were scheduled.
The ex-top lawyer advised Maple Bank, which went bankrupt in 2016 and had operated cum-ex transactions on a large scale, causing tax losses of a good 388 million euros. In November 2022, four former Maple bankers, including the former head of Germany, were sentenced to long prison terms at the Frankfurt Regional Court. The proceedings against the former Freshfields tax lawyer, who did not comment on the allegations when asked, and the two bankers had been separated.
The two ex-Maple bankers are accused of having set up trading structures for the implementation of cum-ex stock deals, the Frankfurt Regional Court said. The lawyer and tax consultant supported this with a “complimentary report” and gave false statements to the tax authorities.
In the case of cum-ex deals, banks and investors had capital gains taxes that had never been paid back and cheated the state by an estimated at least ten billion euros. Around the dividend record date, shares with and without a dividend claim were pushed back and forth between those involved. In the end, tax offices reimbursed unpaid taxes. In 2012, the former loophole was closed. In 2021, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that cum-ex transactions are to be classified as tax evasion.
2023-09-07 00:07:24
#process #CumEx #scandal #exlawyer #court
