The committee of inquiry and the NRW Minister of Justice had exchanged numerous letters.
(Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments)
Cologne Escalation averted: The Hamburg investigative committee to clarify the cum-ex scandal will not sue the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Justice after all. The reason for the threat of lawsuits was that the NRW judiciary put off the Hamburgers for more than a year with the publication of investigation documents. Such a step would have been a one-time event.
But now the dispute has been settled. On Wednesday, a high-ranking delegation from NRW Minister of Justice Benjamin Limbach (Greens) traveled to Hamburg with other investigation files that are important for the political processing of the scandal.
Since the end of 2020, the Hamburg investigative committee has been investigating the question of “why the Hamburg Senate and the Hamburg tax administration were willing to allow millions of euros in taxes to become statute-barred with a view to cum-ex transactions, and to what extent there was an influence in favor of the taxable bank and the disadvantage of the people of Hamburg came”.
The bank is about MM Warburg, the possible political influence is about the role of politicians, especially that of Olaf Scholz. The current Federal Chancellor was the first mayor of Hamburg in 2016 and 2017 and met with Warburg boss Christian Olearius several times during this time.
In 2016, the tax office surprisingly waived the reclaim of 47 million euros in taxes from cum-ex transactions. A similar process would almost have happened again in 2017 if the Federal Ministry of Finance hadn’t intervened.
The investigative committee is now also dealing with HSH Nordbank’s cum-ex transactions. The public prosecutor’s office in Cologne is also conducting investigations in the vicinity of the former Landesbank. Here, too, the committee of inquiry wants to shed light on the background and possible political entanglements.
Apologies from the NRW Ministry
The Hamburg politicians and NRW were at odds over the question of when and which files can be transmitted in connection with the various investigation complexes. The committee of inquiry and NRW Minister of Justice Limbach exchanged numerous letters.
Limbach argued that NRW had to check the files for their “eligibility for publication” before they were passed on. The committee of inquiry, on the other hand, took the view that this was a matter for the Hamburg parliamentarians. In the meantime, NRW even planned to delete some documents irrelevant to the criminal proceedings. When the investigative committee heard about it, they sounded the alarm. He was able to prevent the deletion.
Richard Seelmaecker, a member of the investigative committee, has long fought for the release of the documents in order to advance the clarification of the cum-ex scandal in Hamburg.
Now he is satisfied: “Representatives of the NRW Ministry of Justice have now apologized to the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry for the omissions. You have now delivered investigation files and have given credible assurances that you will fully cooperate. We no longer see any reason to file a lawsuit,” says Seelmaecker.
The representatives of the Ministry of Justice had explained that the problems with the release of the documents lay with the Cologne public prosecutor’s office. On the day of the meeting in Hamburg, there was a sudden change at the top of the authority: Joachim Roth surprisingly announced that he was taking early retirement. However, there are also doubts that Roth is actually responsible for the omissions. Roth could not be reached on request, and the Justice Department declined to comment.
More: Interview with tax investigator – “Tax secrecy protects the perpetrators”