The tax attorney was sentenced to just eight years in prison instead of the maximum sentence of 15 years – because the state is too slow.
(Photo: dpa)
Cologne It’s the year 2038. The Cologne public prosecutor’s office is closing its last cum-ex file. 25 years have passed since investigations into the country’s biggest tax scandal began. Some of the crimes date back 33 years.
This scenario is not a suspect’s fever dream, but official expectations of the judiciary. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach has just announced that the public prosecutor’s office estimates 15 years for their 117 cases. 90 percent of the Cum-Ex procedures are in Cologne.
The long span of time is an indictment of poverty. For many years, banks and investors claimed billions in taxes they didn’t pay. The most expensive auditors and tax attorneys helped out. Cum-Ex was organized crime at its peak.
There is no legal doubt about that. The Federal Court of Justice, the Federal Fiscal Court and the Federal Constitutional Court have all ruled that cum-ex transactions are illegal. All criminal proceedings ended in guilty verdicts. All reviewed judgments were confirmed by the Federal Court of Justice.
But the most recent judgment already shows the fundamental problem. In December, the Bonn Regional Court convicted the former star lawyer Hanno Berger of tax evasion of 278 million euros.
Delayed investigations
That is more than 5,000 times what is considered “serious tax evasion”: 50,000 euros. Nevertheless, Berger did not receive the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, but eight.
One reason: the long time between action and verdict. Most cases investigate offenses between 2005 and 2011.
In Stuttgart there is a procedure against the Landesbank LBBW. The tax damage amounts to 150 million euros. For about ten years, a single public prosecutor has been investigating. The situation is similar in Munich. In Hamburg, the public prosecutor’s office didn’t even want to start work.
Work is mainly done in Cologne and Frankfurt. Now, of all people, the former North Rhine-Westphalia Minister of Justice is complaining that the management of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office does not support their investigators or even hinders them. Positions remain vacant.
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Every year that passes makes the accused happy. If a judge then asks an accused for details in five, ten or 15 years, his answer is predictable: You can’t remember. You would even have to believe him.
It’s a shame that the state isn’t doing everything it can to investigate the billion-euro scandal more quickly. A failure of the clarification not only helps the accused. It also undermines citizens’ trust in the rule of law. That’s brittle enough.
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