In the second cum-ex trial against former tax attorney Hanno Berger, the Wiesbaden district court imposed a prison sentence of eight years and three months.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt It’s about the allegation of serious tax evasion, complex stock transactions in the billions and a major financial loss for the tax authorities: In the scandal about cum-ex stock deals, the verdict was made against the key figure Hanno Berger. The district court of Wiesbaden imposed a prison sentence of eight years and three months on him. In addition, proceeds of almost 1.1 million euros are to be confiscated from Berger’s assets.
The public prosecutor had demanded ten and a half years and the confiscation of assets. Berger’s defense pleaded for acquittal: Cum-Ex deals were not prohibited at the time.
The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses Berger of being involved in complex cum-ex stock deals from 2006 to 2008 that led to unauthorized tax refunds of 113 million euros. In the 72 transactions mediated by Berger, Dax shares worth 15.8 billion euros were traded via former employees of Hypovereinsbank.
The beneficiary was a real estate investor who has died in the meantime. The profits were divided.
Berger’s defense attorney in Bonn is a former BGH judge
Berger’s defense attorney had already announced to the Handelsblatt that his client was determined to appeal the verdict. Berger is already having the decision of the Bonn Regional Court checked in Karlsruhe. The former star lawyer is represented there by Jürgen Graf von VBB Rechtsanwälte.
Graf used to be a BGH judge himself and was deputy chairman of the 1st Criminal Senate until his retirement in mid-2018. He is considered a specialist for revisions. Some previous defense attorneys had ended their mandates for Berger because of disagreements. Some lawyers describe Berger as an extremely difficult client and “resistant to advice”.
Cum-Ex transactions: “Legally secure tax optimization”
Hanno Berger is considered the architect of the cum-ex deals, in which banks and investors never paid capital gains taxes and cheated the state by an estimated at least ten billion euros. They used a loophole in the law at the time.
Around the dividend record date, shares with and without dividend rights were pushed back and forth between several participants. At the end of the confusion, tax offices reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid at all.
The tax loophole was only closed in 2012. In the summer of 2021, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that cum-ex transactions are to be classified as tax evasion.
“The verdicts against Hanno Berger send important signals: the rule of law is strong, even people like Hanno Berger are not above the law,” said Gerhard Schick, chairman of the citizens’ movement Finanzwende. ex scandal.
>> Also read the comment: The cum-ex processing is an indictment of the rule of law
Berger is considered the driving force behind the cum-ex deals in Germany, which peaked between 2006 and 2011 and were widespread. Berger once controlled banks as a tax officer, later he changed sides and became self-employed as a tax lawyer.
He praised cum-ex deals with banks and the wealthy as legally secure tax optimization, advised on the construction and earned millions from it. Berger had repeatedly rejected the allegations and presented himself as the victim of a judicial scandal.
Schick also called for more speed in clarifying the related cum-cum businesses. At more than 28 billion euros, these deals caused almost three times as much damage as cum-ex deals.
“To date, however, only a small fraction of these funds have been recovered, and not a single criminal case has been brought to court. Financial authorities throughout Germany should now take action to recover the funds and public prosecutors to start investigations.”
More: End of an escape – Eight years in prison for tax attorney Hanno Berger