Action without a perpetrator – how politics and the judiciary make a fool of themselves in the Cum-Ex scandal

Dusseldorf The rescue of WestLB after the financial crisis is said to have cost up to 18 billion euros – this is how the then NRW Finance Minister Norbert Walter-Borjans estimated it in 2018. The SPD politician also sat on the supervisory board of WestLB. Walter-Borjans did not notice that the bank was damaging taxpayers with cum-ex transactions after the billions in aid from the tax pot. When asked, he repeatedly said that there were no such transactions at the Landesbank. That’s what the board told him.

It was wrong. Portigon, the successor company to WestLB, has now made provisions of more than EUR 600 million. They are intended for costs arising from the processing of billion-dollar cum-ex trades from the former Landesbank. Walter-Borjans stands there like a drowned poodle. In the end, the taxpayer pays the bill again – Portigon is also state-owned.

More on the subject:

>> State banks sink into cum ex affair

>> Comment: Tschentscher should go

Top jobs of the day

Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.

>> After confession: The accused Hanno Berger squirms

>> Limited liability robber barons

>> Maschmeyer and Cum Ex: The unsuspecting billionaire

Things are no better in other states. And if the supervisory boards in the state banks didn’t notice that crooked business was going on, the investigative authorities weren’t and aren’t bothered by it either. In Frankfurt, it took three years before the public prosecutor’s office carried out a search after cum-ex transactions at Helaba became known.

Handelsblatt Crime appears every 14 days and can be heard wherever there are podcasts.

Exclusive offer for Handelsblatt Today listeners: Test Handelsblatt Premium for six weeks for one euro and always stay informed about what’s moving the financial markets. With a bit of luck you can also win a Kindle e-reader. More information is available here

More: You can hear the last episode of Handelsblatt Crime here

source site-11