Cum-Ex affair: Laptops with possible material against Scholz disappeared
Hamburg - Two laptops containing suspected evidence in the Cum-Ex affair disappeared from a protected safe in Hamburg last week. There were around 700,000 emails on the computers, including all chat traffic between people from the ranks of the SPD who were possibly involved in the scandal. These include Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the First Mayor of Hamburg, Peter Tschentscher. The contents should be available to the responsible investigative committee of the Hamburg citizenship.
Apparently a party colleague of Scholz and Tschentscher, Steffen Jänicke, played an important role. According to a joint investigation by Stern and the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ), he removed the laptops from the safe in the "strictly secured" file room, to which only a few had access. The opposition suspects interference with the content. “We don’t know whether they have been manipulated or read in the meantime,” warned committee secretary Richard Seelmaecker (CDU). However, when asked, Jänicke is said to have assured that the devices were “in a suitable location”.
Cum-Ex: tax fraud with stocks
The committee is investigating, among other things, what role Scholz is said to have played in one of the biggest financial scandals in German history. This is about the so-called cum-ex transactions: They serve to offset the capital gains tax on the annual dividends with tax deductions.
Short sales are carried out before the profits are distributed. Short sellers borrow stocks and sell them to purchase later and make profits. To maximize these profits, sales are carried out before the dividend record date. Those involved conceal who is actually entitled to dividends and at what point in time the shares were owned. At least three actors are involved in this process.
For example, the private bank MM Warburg from Hamburg had earned nine-figure sums from these transactions by 2021. It was then obliged to repay over 176 million euros to the state. Apparently the Hamburg city administration knew about the fraud: the tax office there had already demanded 47 million back for large companies in 2016, but withdrew the decision.
The committee is investigating, among other things, what role Scholz is said to have played in one of the biggest financial scandals in German history. This is about the so-called cum-ex transactions: They serve to offset the capital gains tax on the annual dividends with tax deductions.
Short sales are carried out before the profits are distributed. Short sellers borrow stocks and sell them to purchase later and make profits. To maximize these profits, sales are carried out before the dividend record date. Those involved conceal who is actually entitled to dividends and at what point in time the shares were owned. At least three actors are involved in this process.
For example, the private bank MM Warburg from Hamburg had earned nine-figure sums from these transactions by 2021. It was then obliged to repay over 176 million euros to the state. Apparently the Hamburg city administration knew about the fraud: the tax office there had already demanded 47 million back for large companies in 2016, but withdrew the decision.
Did Scholz know about the dubious transactions?
Scholz, then first mayor, probably met with bank representatives twice this year and spoke on the phone with bank boss Christian Olearius. The 65-year-old is said to have advised Olearius to send the argumentation paper against the reclaims directly to Peter Tschentscher instead of to the tax office. At that time he served as the Hanseatic city's finance senator. The Warburg boss followed the advice, whereupon the original demand was withdrawn.
The Chancellor claims that he has no knowledge of it and cites extensive gaps in his memory. In the emails, however, there are indications of the opposite: According to Stern and WAZ , his then office manager Jeanette Schwamberger had processed private banking transactions using her work account and suggested that today's Chancellery Minister Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD) discuss with Scholz how the appointments would be handled to be “sorted” to the bankers. The word was put in quotation marks. Possible evidence of corruption among two former SPD politicians, Johannes Kahrs and Alfons Pawelczyk, is also said to have been on the devices.
Scholz, then first mayor, probably met with bank representatives twice this year and spoke on the phone with bank boss Christian Olearius. The 65-year-old is said to have advised Olearius to send the argumentation paper against the reclaims directly to Peter Tschentscher instead of to the tax office. At that time he served as the Hanseatic city's finance senator. The Warburg boss followed the advice, whereupon the original demand was withdrawn.
The Chancellor claims that he has no knowledge of it and cites extensive gaps in his memory. In the emails, however, there are indications of the opposite: According to Stern and WAZ , his then office manager Jeanette Schwamberger had processed private banking transactions using her work account and suggested that today's Chancellery Minister Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD) discuss with Scholz how the appointments would be handled to be “sorted” to the bankers. The word was put in quotation marks. Possible evidence of corruption among two former SPD politicians, Johannes Kahrs and Alfons Pawelczyk, is also said to have been on the devices.
Source: Junge Freiheit
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