LG Frankfurt leaves indictment against. two lawyers too

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Another court will deal with the role of advisors in the Cum-Ex tax scandal. After the Wiesbaden Regional Court wanted to see the tax lawyer Hanno Berger in the dock in January 2021, the 24th Large Commercial Criminal Court of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court now has the main proceedings against two former Freshfields partners and six former employees of the now insolvent Maple -Bank opened.

The bank employees are said to have set up trading structures together that made it possible to carry out stock transactions around the dividend date – so-called cum-ex deals, the court said. In this way they achieved that the tax office reimbursed them with capital gains tax in the three-digit million range, which had not even been paid. The Maple Bank was closed in 2016 by the financial regulator Bafin because it was threatened with over-indebtedness due to a tax provision in connection with cum-ex transactions.

The lawyers are accused of having supported the development of these trading structures as part of their advisory activities between 2007 and 2009 through the “reimbursement of courtesy reports” and of having given “incorrect statements to the tax authorities in the context of an objection procedure,” according to the Frankfurt Regional Court in the Message.

The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office had also requested that the law firm, whose partners the accused lawyers were during the period of the crime, be involved in the proceedings with Freshfields. The court wants to decide on this separately. Freshfields is threatened with a fine in the tens of millions. Dates for the main hearing have not yet been set either.

ah / LTO editorial staff

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