German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has once again denied involvement in the country’s “Cum-Ex” fraud scandal.
Appearing for the third time before the Hamburg state parliamentary committee investigating the case, Scholz – a former mayor of the northern German city – said tax evasion and fraud are “not petty offences, but serious criminal offences.”
“I have spent my entire political life campaigning for a fair tax system,” said Scholz.
The chancellor added that the potential fraud involving two Hamburg-based banks “must be consistently investigated and prosecuted.”
In the Cum-Ex fraud scheme, financial investors shifted stock shares back and forth around dividend payments dates in order to aggressively exploit an apparent loophole in tax law.
Germany was particularly badly hit in the scandal, although other countries were also impacted by the scheme.
By swapping shares with (“cum” in Latin) and without (“ex”) dividend entitlements back and forth, players in the scheme were able to receive tax refunds from the German government – despite having never paid the taxes in the first place.
