In the cum-ex scandal involving tax fraud worth billions, investigators are combing through the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main. The raid also extends to ten private apartments. The investigators are looking for incriminating e-mails and letters.
Search at Deutsche Bank in the tax scandal surrounding cum-ex share deals: In the early afternoon, public prosecutors, police and tax investigators searched the headquarters of Germany’s largest financial institution in Frankfurt for evidence of the transactions at the expense of the state treasury. “We confirm that the Cologne public prosecutor’s office is currently taking official action at our Frankfurt location as part of the investigations against the bank in the matter of Cum-Ex, which have been ongoing since 2017,” said a spokesman for the bank. “As has been the case since the investigation began in 2017, the bank continues to cooperate fully with the investigating authority,” said the spokesman.
The lead public prosecutor’s office in Cologne confirmed without naming names that “search warrants against a bank in Frankfurt am Main and other group companies as well as against an auditing company” would be carried out. In addition, the private homes of ten suspects would be searched. “The measures are related to cum-ex transactions that are the subject of the proceedings and related tax evasion models. The measure serves in particular to find relevant communication in the form of e-mails and other written correspondence,” said the investigating authority.
In cum-ex transactions, several participants pushed blocks of shares with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend rights back and forth around the dividend record date. As a result, tax offices reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid at all. The state suffered billions in damage. Several public prosecutors have been investigating the complex for years. The first criminal trials ended with convictions.
According to the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, a total of 114 investigators from several police departments in North Rhine-Westphalia, tax investigators from North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Bavaria as well as the Federal Central Tax Office and IT experts were involved in the current search.