German courts these days are considering what the country has ever called the “biggest tax scandal.” Now in the spotlight is the accused, lawyer Hanno Berger, nicknamed “Mr. cum / ex ‘.
The nickname is derived from a transaction called cum / ex, which consists of coordinated buying and selling of company shares by investors who make these purchases before paying dividends (cum) and (ex). The payment of these dividends is associated with taxes which, through actors like Berger, are likely to be successfully claimed several times from the German state.
Thus, the German treasury reimburses dividend tax payments several times to Berger’s clients, who were considered “masters” of cum / ex operations, according to the newspaper. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Berger, 71, has always defended his innocence. A doctor of law who worked in public administration in the 1990s as a high-ranking tax collector specializing in the banking sector in Frankfurt, the financial capital of Germany, defends himself by limiting himself to exploiting the shortcomings left by the government.
However, he is now accused of being involved in “the biggest tax theft in German history”, according to Finanzwende, a civil society organization dedicated to protecting consumers in the financial sector.
The organization’s expert on financial crime is Conrad Duff, who in Berger, as he explains to elDiario.es, “sees a key figure in the cum / ex operations scandal as he has made it possible to expand the group of people who participated. In those operations.
“Berger has allowed private investors to participate in these operations, which were previously booked, so to speak, for financial institutions,” Duff added. At the trial, which Berger attended in Bonn this week alone, he was accused of participating in tax evasion for € 278 million.
While defending the legitimacy of financial management that made it possible for him – and his own clients – to enrich himself – Berger fled to Switzerland in 2012, just as the German authorities became interested in his activities and conducted a search of his Frankfurt offices.
After a career as a tax auditor in the banking sector in Frankfurt, Berger worked for several German and international law firms. In 2010, he founded a law firm on behalf of himself and several associates.
Since 2007, according to the prosecution, he has already started cum / ex operations. At the time, Berger worked for HypoVereinsbank and MM Warburg. As the weekly explains Die Zeit, Berger then proselytized, which seemed like a “perfect deal.” It was so “perfect” that when in 2019 other people less involved in the case than Berger were sentenced in Cologne, the judge spoke of a “criminal masterpiece”. Such crimes seem to be available to only a few.
“Berger’s case is the most famous, because he is one of the most famous figures. “We have to take into account that we are talking about a man who, first and foremost, worked in the German state, became the one many companies feared, because he did his job very well in collecting taxes,” Duff Finanzwende explains.
“He was so good that he got into the public service very quickly and that is what makes his job especially popular. “Also, because he later changed sides and knew the laws and their weaknesses so well that he thought he had found ways to avoid the law … but he never actually did,” said the financial crime expert. .
Duff points to the fact that Berger did not ultimately benefit from some sort of legal vacuum. On the contrary, their actions would always be criminal. Therefore, according to the prosecution, now there is no talk about whether the cum / ex transactions in the Bonn trial are legal or not. The question is whether Berger was involved in this lawlessness.
tion relating to the incident in Germany these days does not seem to raise any doubt about this involvement. Moreover, as the newspaper recalls this week Frankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungBerger himself explained in an interview with Economic Week 2019 Capital As the “architect” of a dubious business, for which he now has to defend himself in court.
For evading taxes in the Bonn case, if convicted, he faces up to ten years in prison. However, Berger not only has unfinished business with the Bonn courts. From next June, another trial against him is expected to begin for other cum / ex operations in Wiesbaden.
According to reports they offer at the Finanzwende organization, Berger’s is just one of many cases that have yet to be opened. Up to € 10,000 million from the German treasury in 2001-2011 would have been stolen through cum / ex operations. The final exemplary convict against Berger will not cover work that has not yet been completed by the German tax authorities.
At the end of 2021 there were 103 cum / ex transactions open. Only three of them were convicted.
Source: El Diario
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