When Olaf Scholz looks back on his past from Berlin, one could almost agree with his impression that the clarification of the Hamburg tax money scandal is stagnant.

The public prosecutor's office in Bonn, of all people, is now on the brakes before Scholz has to give answers to the committee of inquiry on Friday about political influence on a tax reclaim in favor of MM Warburg.

The prosecutors actually have to “collect” 176 million euros from the private bank’s cum-ex transactions.

This is flanked by a final criminal judgment, an order and by the Federal Constitutional Court: Karlsruhe has cleared the way for the prosecutors to skim off the entire cum-ex profit at Warburg.

The private bank is adamant that the tax debts have been paid off.

In Bonn, this is having an effect: the recovery has been suspended.

Warburg claims that profits from illegal transactions do not have to be paid twice into the state treasury - the fact that the case, which has been clarified by the highest court, will be brought before the court again needs to be clarified quickly.

Otherwise, final criminal judgments and orders will no longer be worth more than the paper they are written on.