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Global Economy

Confiscation of Warburg millions stopped

In connection with "Cum-Ex" transactions, the public prosecutor's office in Bonn has suspended the announced confiscation of 176 million euros from the Warburg Bank. According to a statement from the public prosecutor's office, the Hamburg bank has already paid back the sum to the tax office. This is now being clarified by the Bonn Regional Court.

The public prosecutor had previously sent payment requests totaling around 190 million euros to the bank and a British stockbroker. The private bank accounted for around 176.6 million euros, and the stock trader accounted for the remaining almost 14 million. It was initially unclear whether the payment requests to him would also be suspended. The payments were intended to implement the first legally binding judgment on illegal "cum-ex" transactions.

In the judgment confirmed by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in July 2021, the bank was obliged to repay more than 176 million euros to the state treasury, and the stock trader to pay 14 million euros, of which he had already deposited three million. As early as April, the Warburg-Bank failed with a constitutional complaint against the confiscation of the money before the Federal Constitutional Court.

billions in damage to the state

In "cum-ex" deals, investors used a loophole in the law to cheat the German state out of money for years. Around the dividend record date, several participants pushed shares with ("cum") and without ("ex") dividend rights back and forth. As a result, tax offices reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid at all.

The state suffered billions in damage. In 2012 the tax loophole was closed. Several public prosecutors and courts nationwide have been investigating for years to clear up one of the biggest tax scandals in post-war German history. Last year, the federal court ruled that "cum-ex" deals were a criminal offense.

Committee of Inquiry in Hamburg

The affair surrounding the Warburg Bank's "Cum-Ex" business also has a political component. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was the first mayor of Hamburg between 2011 and 2018. In 2016, the tax authorities there waived the institute's repayment of 47 million euros in connection with the tax practice. An investigative committee of the Hamburg Parliament has been trying to clarify the background to these events in the Hanseatic city since 2020.

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