2023-09-10 11:36:11
Düsseldorf A previously secret investigation report by the law firm Clifford Chance raises doubts about the seriousness of the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office in the fight against tax evaders. According to this, HSH Nordbank earned a total of 112 million euros from illegal cum-ex transactions between 2008 and 2011. The former Landesbank was privatized in 2018 and now operates as Hamburg Commercial Bank. The Hamburg public prosecutor’s office never cleared up her cum-ex legacy.
The prominent Hamburg criminal lawyer Gerhard Strate makes serious allegations against the investigative authority: “It is unbelievable that there was never a trial in this matter. The complete inaction of the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office in this case probably constitutes the offense of obstruction of punishment in office.”
Strate is in line with FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki. He said years ago that HSH Nordbank’s business would constitute the objective and subjective offense of tax evasion – “without any doubt”. Then, however, Kubicki was instructed by the cum-ex great Hanno Berger and changed his legal assessment significantly.
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The report by the law firm Clifford Chance describes in detail how the cum-ex transactions took place at HSH Nordbank. The bank submitted the report to the public prosecutor. But the investigators could only bring themselves to “set up an observation process,” as the authorities call it. The obviously serious tax evasion was not punished.
In the current Podcast Crime episode, podcast editor Lena Jesberg talks to investigative reporters Sönke Iwersen and Volker Votsmeier about this extraordinary case of economic crime: a state bank that reaches into the pockets of its own owners. A public prosecutor’s office that doesn’t want to investigate, even though it would have been legally obliged to do so. And many ex-bankers who are still under investigation – thanks to a public prosecutor’s office from North Rhine-Westphalia that is trying to make up for the failings of its Hamburg colleagues.
Handelsblatt Crime is published every 14 days and can be heard wherever podcasts are available.
More: You can listen to the previous episode of Handelsblatt Crime here
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