Finally!” says the poster, which an employee of the “Bürgerbewegung Finanzwende” holds up with a smile.

Next to it is a photo of former tax star lawyer Hanno Berger.

The group of activists for the financial turnaround have posted themselves in signal blue jackets in front of the entrance to the Bonn regional court.

Since Monday, the alleged “Spiritus Rector” of the cum-ex stock deals has had to answer to an economic crime chamber there for serious tax evasion.

But before the time had come and the indictment could be read out, we had to wait again.

A box with documents was missing.

Inside is his copy of the indictment with personal notes, Berger explains to the presiding judge, Roland Zickler.

Katja Gelinsky

Business correspondent in Berlin

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A minor glitch that causes a brief delay.

Insignificant after years of investigation marathon.

And still symbolic.

For a few minutes, it's – once again – the mastermind Berger who dictates events, even after being led into the courtroom in handcuffs.

In the press and auditorium, jokes are whispered about the missing file box;

maybe it was a late interception by the tax investigators.

The presiding judge is just about to put an end to the scenery and leave the room again - the door opens and a sergeant brings the box.

Finally!

Berger gets his indictment out of the moving box and chief public prosecutor Anne Brorhilker can start reading out the allegations.

Prosecutor: profit of 27 million

With his former law firm partner S., Berger is said to have brought together the Hamburg private bank MM Warburg with HypoVereinsbank and the British Ballance Group in order to jointly participate in cum-ex trading.

It was about highly complex share group transactions.

The aim of trading shares with (cum) and without (ex) dividends was a credit or refund of capital gains tax that had not previously been paid.

Berger has systematically built up the business and also involved private investors.

According to the public prosecutor's office, the accused made a profit of 27 million euros between 2007 and 2013 from the transactions for which he is accused in Bonn.

That is the quintessence of the 142-page long indictment, which Chief Prosecutor Brorhilker rattled off in a monotonous voice until she was relieved by a colleague after a good hour.

Brorhilker doesn't even look away from the indictment, doesn't look at Berger, who sits across the courtroom from her.

No sign of triumph.

The criminal proceedings against Berger are also Brorhilker's personal success.

The Cologne prosecutor investigated the tax scandal for around nine years.

Meticulously and tenaciously, against a great deal of resistance, including from the authorities, she uncovered the structures of the illegal machinations that Berger is accused of.

She spent her first years in the public prosecutor's office in the clemency office, checked

whether the state could show mercy before justice towards convicts with a difficult fate.

Professional careers end here rather than begin.

Who would have thought that the "little aunt", as Berger contemptuously called her in tapped telephone conversations, could one day dethrone the "king of the cum-ex business"?

Reputation as a “tax optimizer”

Berger followed the nearly two-hour indictment reading carefully.

The flood of damage amounts that Brorhilker and her colleague read out down to the last cent – ​​totals of 2,634,862.50 euros or 3,046,312.25 euros, the litany of share deals – 10 million BMW units, 16.1 million Deutsche Bank AG units , 1.2 million shares Deutsche Börse AG – don't seem to tire him in the least.

Berger takes notes, which he forwards to his public defenders and whispers to them.