The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office has apparently achieved spectacular success in its investigations into the Cum-Ex scandal.
As the authority announced on Thursday, "on July 20, 2022, forces of the Spanish criminal police in Spain (Mallorca) arrested a 56-year-old suspect on the basis of a European arrest warrant from the district court in Frankfurt am Main".
Hanno Mussler
Editor in Business.
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According to information from financial circles, the accused, who is suspected of serious tax evasion, is a German who used to work for the German subsidiary of the Belgian Fortis Bank, which in turn now belongs to the Dutch banking group ABN Amro.
Previously searched offices twice
Their offices in Frankfurt have already been searched by investigators at least twice, in November 2019 and February 2020.
They sense that Fortis was mainly involved as a custodian bank in the opaque share group transactions around the dividend date, with which market participants had capital gains tax certified several times, but which was only paid once.
In this largest tax robbery in German history, a total of more than 10 billion euros are said to have been withdrawn from the tax authorities by many banks and fund companies.
The banker, who has now been arrested in Mallorca, is accused by the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office of “initiating a cum-ex short sale ban together with other suspects and implementing it several times in the years 2008 to 2010”.
The Hessian Treasury may have been damaged by 51 million euros, the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor said.