The accused is 71 years old. He faces 15 years in prison.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf In the dock of the Bonn Regional Court, Hanno Berger is tugging at the patience of the judiciary. The Cologne public prosecutor’s office accuses him of being significantly involved in tax evasion of 278 million euros. At first, Berger announced a rant, then his lawyers silenced him. A confession has been around for a few days, but Berger can’t cope with it.
“As you have noticed for a long time, I would like an admission, I would like to make it as soon as possible,” Berger said on Monday to the presiding judge Roland Zickler. “The only point is that a lot of the things I say depend on the exact wording.” Berger asked to be allowed to tape his testimony. Then he could play them to the court.
This made the judge misunderstood. Zickler has already led three lawsuits in the Cum-Ex affair – the term describes a method of stock trading in which those involved had more taxes refunded than they paid. Zickler convicted all of the defendants. The highest German courts have already confirmed his legal opinion in two cases.
The judge denied Berger’s request for his testimony to be recorded and explained to the defendant that trials in Germany are conducted orally, not on tape. Then he gave him some advice: “An entry is all the more catchy the clearer it is,” said Zickler.
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Of course, Berger could say whatever he wanted. But how about if the accused “simply assumes” that the court assumes that a criminal offense has been committed in this process?
>> Read here: Why the state banks are deep in the cum-ex swamp
Mr. Berger’s long file
The transactions for which Berger has to answer come from the Hamburg private bank MM Warburg. It’s partly the deals that all led to convictions in three previous trials.
If you now assume that the fact has been clarified factually, said Zickler, the court wants to know above all how Berger assesses his role in these deals. “What were you thinking?” Zickler asked the accused. “This question leads to the intention and to the only feature that requires an intensive and demonstrable analysis here. … Everything else is perhaps already outdated in terms of process.”
Berger’s answer was surprising, even though he had listened carefully: “My way of working was to dig up everything there was,” he said. “In that context, the banking association played a big role… And Freshfields was a benchmark.” Berger played with Freshfields the big law firm, which had written a number of expert opinions per Cum-Ex, especially for banks. Zickler replied dryly: “But they can’t do magic either.” Berger didn’t give up: “I can still pray it down to you at half past one at night.”
Judge Zickler didn’t go down well: He knows the hundreds of pages in the file in which Berger tries to substantiate his legal views. The defendant, who was once a renowned tax attorney, had put nine years of work into his defense. Back then, in 2012, Berger had fled to Switzerland when the public prosecutor’s office searched his office. From there he called the investigation against him a judicial scandal.
Accused insults the investigators and the judge
The business that he is accused of did not exist at all, said Berger. The accused have already stood before him. Even his former law firm partner unpacked. Berger, however, called him a liar and the investigators he called “idiots, weaklings and socialist gangs”. He spoke of the judge as a “pig judge”.
Even if the Federal Court of Justice, the Federal Fiscal Court and the Federal Constitutional Court have already condemned cum-ex transactions as punishable and illegal under tax law – Berger always thinks he knows better. When he started to make a new statement on Monday, his own lawyer interrupted him. Berger countered, the voices rolled over. Then the judge put an end to the dispute.
“Mr. Berger, just listen,” said Zickler. “When your defense attorney picks up on the thoughts of the court, it makes sense, for obvious reasons, to listen. I don’t think what you’re doing here is a sensible strategy. Because you are cutting yourself off from insights that you might gain by listening.”
No insight from the 71-year-old, who faces 15 years in prison
Before Monday it seemed as if Berger had learned to listen after all. As the Handelsblatt reported, Berger and his defense attorneys met with the court and the public prosecutor’s office behind closed doors. The result of the conversation was announced in the courtroom: Berger was ready for a “confessional admission”. A statement that resembles a confession. What Berger said on Monday was nothing like that.
A confession to be taken means that a defendant admits what he has done. And not that he plays a tape on which he presents an all-encompassing classification of German tax law. Those who thought it impossible for Berger to confess after years of raging against the judiciary now see themselves confirmed.
But maybe they shouldn’t expect more from Berger. The accused is 71 years old. He faces 15 years in prison. Not only in Bonn, but also in Wiesbaden, Berger is accused of his cum-ex business. When Berger is not in court, he is in a cell.
More: Podcast Hanno Berger: Cum-Ex string puller and public enemy no. 1