The Cologne public prosecutor's office has apparently brought charges against the co-owner and former boss of the private bank MMWarburg & Co, Christian Olearius, in connection with cum-ex transactions - apparently without informing him about it.
There are several cases of serious tax evasion, at least the Süddeutsche Zeitung and WDR reported on Tuesday.
Confronted with this news, the spokesman for Christian Olearius told the FAZ on Tuesday evening: "According to paragraph 163a of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the accused must be heard before charges are brought.
That didn't happen."
Hanno Mussler
Editor in Business.
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However, there is little doubt that the charges have actually been or will be brought.
While the Cologne public prosecutor's office could no longer be reached on Tuesday evening, a spokeswoman for the competent district court in Bonn confirmed to the Reuters agency that a new cum-ex lawsuit had been received.
She did not want to comment on details.
Olearius upset
The spokesman for Olearius was angry.
"In legal circles, people shake their heads at the Cologne public prosecutor's office," he said.
Because neither Olearius nor his lawyers are aware of any charges.
"In this respect, we can expressly confirm that there is no ad." Again he denied that Olearius was guilty of anything.
Olearius was spokesman for the shareholders of Warburg-Bank in Hamburg for a good two decades before moving to the supervisory board in 2014.
The Cologne public prosecutor's office apparently accuses him of causing tax damage of more than 100 million euros between 2007 and 2011 as a participant in share group transactions around the dividend record date ("Cum-Ex").
An important player in the cum-ex scandal was the former Düsseldorf Landesbank West LB, whose role the new black-green state government now wants to work through.
So far, the apparently central role of the Warburg Bank has been highlighted in three lawsuits before the Bonn Regional Court.
The bank and former employees were convicted in judgments that are in some cases not yet final, and a parliamentary investigative committee in Hamburg's parliament is also investigating the connections to today's Federal Chancellor and then Mayor Olaf Scholz.