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Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz is finding it increasingly difficult to explain the cum-ex scandal surrounding Hamburg’s private bank MM Warburg. According to information from Süddeutsche Zeitung During his time as the first mayor of the Hanseatic city, the SPD chancellor candidate met with Warburg co-owner Christian Olearius more frequently than previously known. This comes from the banker’s diaries, which the SZ was able to see.
Consequently, there were three meetings and one phone call between Scholz and Olearius in 2016 and 2017. Until now, Scholz had only allowed the bank head to visit him in 2017. According to Olearius’s records, the background to the talks was possible claims Hamburg city tax by millions.
The bank is involved in Germany’s biggest tax issue, the cum-ex scandal, in which banks are said to have swindled billions from tax authorities. In the summer of 2016, the Cologne prosecutor’s office investigated allegedly illegal deals against Warburg-Bank and Olearius. The bank was registered in January 2016. There was a special audit by financial regulator Bafin.
However, Scholz received the bank manager on September 7, 2016 in his office. According to the newspaper’s entries, Olearius explained the bank’s legal position to the SPD politician. The Hamburg tax authorities had announced that they would require a capital gains tax refund of € 47 million for 2009 from Warburg due to the cum-ex agreements. When this requirement became more precise a few weeks later, Olearius again made an appointment with Scholz. At this second meeting on October 26, the banker presented a draft of a multi-page letter to the tax authorities in which the bank, which denies all of the cum-ex allegations, indicated that the bank’s existence would be compromised in refund case.
Less than two weeks later, according to Olearius’ notes, Scholz called the bank manager and told him that he should send the letter to then-Finance Senator Peter Tschentscher without comment. Coincidence or not: Three days after the phone call, according to his notes, Olearius received a note from the tax authorities that the city would not claim the 47 million euros.
Spicy for Scholz: He had not disclosed the meeting when the process was an issue in the Bundestag’s finance committee in March and July. At SZ’s request, Scholz now allows all three meetings with Olearius and the phone call. Basically talk to everyone. He has no concrete memories of the conversations. However, he emphasizes that he has not made promises or evaluated. And he never “exerted influence on tax matters.” He also did not speak to the finance senator or the tax authorities about the case. He did not remember Olearius’s letter. However, you cannot rule out that you have seen or received such paper.
