Tax attorney is combative at the start of the process

Bonn At 10:10 a.m., tax attorney Hanno Berger enters room 0.11 of the Bonn Regional Court, walks past the numerous camera lenses, turns his back on the journalists and spectators and moves in the direction of the dock. His two public defenders, Martin Kretschmer and Carsten Rubarth, try to protect Berger from looking at his handcuffed hands as much as possible. Finally, a prison sergeant unties the central figure in the Cum-Ex trial.

Berger has had to answer for himself in Bonn since Monday morning. He is accused of fraud and tax evasion of more than 278 million euros. He was involved in cum-ex deals at Hamburg bank MM Warburg. The former tax attorney faces 15 years in prison. The 71-year-old denies the allegations.

Berger’s day started very early. He has traveled a good 150 kilometers in a judicial van from the Frankfurt-Preungesheim prison to Bonn. Now Berger stands next to the dock and looks in the direction of the journalists, a white surgical mask covers his face. The lawyer wears a dark blue suit and blue tie.

Berger seems unimpressed by the great interest in him and this process. Externally, he has hardly changed compared to previous years.

The allegations against Hanno Berger are tough

The process begins. Judge Roland Zickler notes Berger’s presence – “presented from custody,” as he notes, and asks for personal details. Hanno Ernst Heinrich Kaspar Berger, born November 13 in Frankfurt am Main, married, lawyer and tax consultant by profession.

Before chief prosecutor Anne Brorhilker can read out the indictment, documents first have to be obtained. There are nine folders. After a good ten minutes, a judicial officer uses a sack truck to transport a moving box to the hearing room of the district court.

Defense attorney Carsten Rubarth grabs the box and hands it over to his client. Berger reaches in and pulls out his annotated copy of the indictment.

“Are your documents now complete?” the judge asks the tax attorney accused of serious tax evasion and fraud. “I haven’t searched the box yet, but I assume so,” Berger replies. “But do you have everything you need now?” Zickler wants to know. “Yes.”

It is 10:40 am when Chief Prosecutor Brorhilker begins reading the indictment. Berger eagerly takes notes and keeps shaking his head. Brorhilker had put Berger as one of the first suspects on their list of suspects in the investigation into cum-ex transactions. Now she reads the indictment calmly and quickly. The allegations are tough.

In 2007, Berger decided to work with the Hamburg MM Warburg Group, the Hypovereinsbank and the Ballance Group to carry out cum-ex transactions with German stocks in the years that followed. The only incentive of the shops was to have capital gains tax refunded unlawfully. The tax had not previously been withheld or paid. “It was the accused who presented the idea of ​​conducting cum-ex transactions at Warburg Bank and was able to successfully place it,” the prosecutors say.

Berger and the others involved are said to have caused enormous damage as a result of the crimes between 2007 and 2011: “The total amount of unlawful tax repayments amounts to EUR 278,586,998.09,” the prosecutors allege .

Berger is said to have approved a large part of the profits from the tax fund himself. He is also said to have withheld this detail from his clients – which is why the charge is not only fraud, but also tax evasion. According to the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, he earned more than 13 million euros from cum-ex transactions at Bank MM Warburg alone.

In order to collect the profits from the cum-ex transactions, Berger, together with a law firm partner, would have built up a branched construct with several companies based abroad that had no operational business. According to the findings of the investigators, the construct served – in addition to alleged tax advantages – the sole purpose of concealing the true origin of the funds.

More: Portrait of Hanno Berger – from civil servant to public enemy number one