Dusseldorf The Ministry of Justice in North Rhine-Westphalia has been refusing to send important documents on the Cum-Ex tax scandal to Hamburg for a year. There, a committee of inquiry is dealing with the question of whether political influence was exerted in favor of the Hamburg banker Christian Olearius under the former mayor of Hamburg and today’s Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
“On August 11, 2022, at our request, the investigative committee requested that the evidence confiscated during the investigation be handed over. Since then we’ve been put off,” says Richard Seelmaecker. The Hamburg opposition politician sits on the investigative committee for the CDU.
On Wednesday, Seelmaecker and the other committee members will be visited by a four-strong delegation from NRW Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach. They want to “show the problem” and “ideally start discussing a concept” in order to ensure the “quick submission of files”.
For Seelmaecker that sounds like mockery. Limbach has been in office since June 2022, and the Green politician has been stonewalling ever since. For Seelmaecker it is now clear: If Limbach continues to refuse to hand over all the files, he will sue the minister.
The term Cum-Ex stands for the biggest tax scandal in Germany. It refers to a method of stock trading in which those involved were reimbursed twice as much tax as they paid. Banks and investors made billions with it.
The Hamburg tax office spared the Warburg Bank
In Hamburg, the traditional bank MM Warburg participated in cum-ex deals. When the responsible tax office found out about the double tax refunds, it wanted to reclaim 47 million euros in 2016. Then Olearius, as the owner of the bank, met Olaf Scholz, then the first mayor of the Hanseatic city.
Chancellor Scholz was twice called to the witness stand.
(Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments)
After the talks, the Hamburg tax authorities suddenly gave up the millions. The process almost repeated itself in 2017, this time it was about 43 million euros. Only after instructions from the Federal Ministry of Finance did the tax office demand the money back.
The Hamburg public prosecutor’s office dropped the case. But the public prosecutor’s office in Cologne took over the proceedings and has since submitted several charges.
In September 2019, the first cum-ex trial began at the Bonn Regional Court. Warburg Bank was involved in the process as a secondary participant. After a guilty verdict in March 2020, the bank had to pay 176 million euros to the state treasury.
Long prison sentences imposed
In the meantime there have been further trials and further verdicts. The former chief representative of the Warburg Bank was sent to prison for five years and six months, and the court sentenced the Warburg lawyer Hanno Berger to eight years in prison. In April, the charges against Olearius were approved.
The Hamburg investigative committee has been dealing with the case since the end of 2020. He is supposed to clarify “why the Hamburg Senate and the Hamburg tax administration were willing to let taxes in the millions statute of limitations with a view to cum-ex transactions and to what extent there was influence in favor of the taxable bank and to the detriment of the people of Hamburg.”
The committee heard 53 witnesses and held 43 meetings. Chancellor Scholz sat twice on the witness stand. He denied any influence, he could rarely remember details. The parliamentarians are therefore looking for documents to fill the gaps.
Many documents are in Cologne. In February 2016, the public prosecutor’s office searched the Warburg Bank, and again in March 2018. In September 2021, officials from Cologne turned up at the Hamburg SPD politician Johannes Kahrs. They also visited the workplace of the accused Daniela P.: the Hamburg tax office for large companies.
>> Read here: Why don’t you remember, Chancellor? Eight questions that matter in the cum-ex scandal
Kahrs was the one who put Olearius and Scholz in contact. He was also the one who asked Olearius after meeting Scholz if the banker wanted to donate to the SPD. Olearius donated.
Tax officer with a “diabolical plan”
Daniela P. was the tax officer who initially wanted to reclaim the taxes from the cum-ex deals and did not after the meeting of the banker and the mayor. She denied any connection. But in a text message to a colleague, she was pleased that the “diabolical plan” had worked.
The Hamburg MP Seelmaecker is now wondering why the NRW officials do not want to share their findings. Since the Hamburg Cum-Ex Committee requested the documents in August 2022, there has been a lively exchange of letters.
“I regret to inform you that this is not the case at the moment,” wrote Minister of Justice Limbach at the beginning of January when asked from Hamburg when the committee could expect the Cum-Ex documents. Limbach asked the chief public prosecutor in Cologne.
>> Read here: According to statements in the committee of inquiry, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still under pressure
He said it would take time. “Since there could always be new investigative approaches in the proceedings,” a “reliable forecast as to when the evaluation and inspection of all evidence objects will be completed is currently not possible,” wrote Limbach. He has no reason to doubt the representation of the senior public prosecutor.
Seelmaecker felt fooled. On February 18, 2023, he wrote to Limbach: “Despite the promise at working level eight months ago and our subsequent decision by the investigative committee six months ago, we have not yet received the evidence requested for administrative assistance.” He set Limbach a deadline of April 7. March.
Data should be deleted
On March 9, Limbach said he had a “practical proposal for responding to the submission request.” In order to speed up the inspection, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office could “delete documents that are not considered relevant to the investigation”. Among them are the e-mail inboxes of Scholz’ office manager Jeanette Schwamberger and the head of the Chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt.
In February 2016, the public prosecutor’s office searched the Warburg Bank, and again in March 2018.
(Photo: dpa)
That sounded threatening to Seelmaecker. Documents that had no criminal significance could very well be important for clarifying political responsibility. He intervened. In the meantime, the committee of inquiry has the assurance that NRW will not delete any data. Limbach is sticking to her exam.
In May, the minister wrote that the documents would be sent to the committee “unsolicited”. However, he asked the chief public prosecutor in Cologne to examine “the extent to which the protection of fundamental rights of third parties and the protection of ongoing criminal investigations can prevent a submission. In this respect, an individual inspection is required.”
Two months later, Seelmaecker is still waiting. In response to questions from the Handelsblatt, a ministry spokesman said that documents had already been “successively transmitted” to Hamburg. In principle, everything is fine.
NRW Minister of Justice reaps objection
When asked by the Handelsblatt when all the relevant documents would arrive in Hamburg, a ministry spokesman replied that they would be “issued to the committee of inquiry after the necessary constitutional examination has been carried out”.
This infuriated Limbach’s predecessor Peter Biesenbach: “I cannot understand that the Ministry of Justice is withholding files from the Cologne public prosecutor’s office from the investigative committee,” says the CDU politician. “A refusal is clearly illegal.”
Seelmaecker sees it the same way. “Our rule of law must work regardless of person or office, even if a justice minister or the federal chancellor is affected. Everyone is equal before the law,” he says.
If the minister does not bring the complete documents with him on Wednesday, the parliamentary committee of inquiry sees no other way than to legally force Limbach to hand over all documents. It would be a novelty in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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