The candidate for the CDU party chairmanship, Friedrich Merz, defends himself against criticism of his activities in the financial sector. At the same time he condemned tax tricks at the expense of the state treasury. "Stock deals like Cum-Ex and Cum-Cum ultimately serve to exempt taxpayers," said the former Union faction chief of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung". Such deals are "completely immoral," regardless of the legal rating. "I have always believed in this opinion and have always expressed it."
The anti-corruption organization Transparency Germany had previously expressed criticism over Merz. "Friedrich Merz will have to explain to the members of the CDU how he has campaigned in his various functions in the financial industry for a socially responsible action of his clients - for example, as a supervisory board of the private bank HSBC Germany, which was involved in cum-ex-business", said Transparency Chairman Edda Müller of the German Press Agency in Berlin. "He has to show how he wants to use these experiences for a welfare-oriented policy."
No connection with cum-ex transactions
Merz has worked in a law firm since retiring from politics and holds several mandates with companies. Thus, the supervisory board chief of the asset manager Blackrock Germany and a member of the HSBC supervisory board.
In dubious cum-ex-tax transactions had been deceived by a shuffling of shares EU-wide tax offices. They refunded billions of dollars in taxes that were never paid. (Read a detailed explanation here.)
The newspaper quotes supervisory board circles, according to which the control committee of HSBC Germany with the topic was regularly concerned, since the prosecutor's office Duesseldorf 2016 took up investigations. A spokesman for the bank told the newspaper: "HSBC Germany has not been consciously involved in such deals." It is about a "small double-digit million amount" of tax credits in question from the years 2005 to 2011. Thus, the bank would not be one of the main players in the Cum-Ex scandal.