Knowing and wanting to know about the circumstances of the crime that are part of committing a criminal offense is the brief definition of intent under criminal law.
In the case of the accused Hanno Berger, the criminal court in Bonn affirmed both.
The presiding judge emphasized in dozens of places in his oral justification of the judgment that Berger had known exactly what he was doing in advising on the cum-ex deals since 2007.
The former top lawyer has to go to prison for eight years for particularly serious tax evasion.
He has to pay back more than 13.6 million euros in profits from cum-ex transactions to the state.
Anyone who followed the trial knew that Berger's alleged partial confession would once again be an important aspect of the verdict.
Because his confession wasn't real.
It does not meet the criteria "completely and voluntarily" if an accused subsequently shows no remorse and proceedings drag on for months.
It is logical that the Chamber did not honor this behavior.
Berger balanced on the fine line between legal gray area and illegality.
Driven by his greed, he lost his way.
He reached deep into the state treasury several times.
In the Bonn case alone, the damage was 276 million euros.
In the summer of 2021, the Federal Court of Justice clarified that such transactions are illegal. This gave the criminal judges good orientation for their truth-finding.
Berger, on the other hand, had already raged in Swiss exile against what he saw as biased German criminal justice systems.
In court, he doubted the fair trial and got caught up in his arguments.
To date, he has not paid a cent back.
With that he decided against sincerity.
The 72-year-old took the chance to have a perspective for the time after prison.
His consulting fees are obviously gone, unattainable for the tax authorities.
Former business partners are suing him for amounts in the high millions.
Berger will be able to hide this in prison.
But now prosecutors are investigating in his closest environment for money laundering.
Hanno Berger will have to live with the fact that the scandal is now spreading to his family.