Sensitive meeting with Cum-Ex-Banker: Opposition demands answers from Scholz

Coincidence or not? In 2016, the then Mayor of Hamburg, Scholz, met the head of the private bank MM Warburg. A little later, the Hanseatic city waived a tax refund in the millions. In the Bundestag Finance Committee, the Vice Chancellor kept silent about the conversation.

The opposition reacted angrily to reports that Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz may have lied in the Bundestag Finance Committee. "Olaf Scholz now has to put all the cards on the table," said the Greens' financial policy spokeswoman Lisa Paus. "It is more than irritating that the finance minister kept silent about the meetings in the finance committee. Those who keep silent have something to hide." There is a suspicion in the room that the Warburg Bank was spared at the expense of the general public. "That would be a scandal," said Paus. Scholz must dispel any doubts. The Greens wanted to invite him to the finance committee next week.

Left parliamentary group vice-president Fabio De Masi also announced that he would apply for Scholz to appear again in the finance committee. "Olaf Scholz played Pinocchio in the Bundestag and told the untruth," he said. The statement that Scholz had no influence whatsoever on the Warburg Bank's tax proceedings is not credible.

It had previously become known that Scholz had met with the co-owner of the Hamburg private bank MM Warburg more often than previously admitted during his time as Hamburg mayor. This emerges from the banker's diaries, which are available to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (SZ), the NDR and "Zeit". The meeting was about a tax claim by the Hanseatic city against the bank in the millions in connection with cum-ex deals.

Scholz declines

According to the reports, Scholz and bank chief Christian Olearius met three times in 2016 and 2017 and made one phone call. The former mayor of Hamburg had only allowed the banker to visit in 2017 – including at a hearing in the Bundestag's finance committee.

"The Federal Finance Minister reported to the Finance Committee some time ago about the events that had taken place several years ago and also made a public statement," said the Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin upon request. "He has shown that in his previous role as First Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg he always kept out of specific tax proceedings."

The Cologne public prosecutor's office had started investigations against Warburg-Bank and Olearius in the summer of 2016 for allegedly illegal cum-ex deals. In January 2016, the bank was searched, there was a special audit by the financial supervisory authority Bafin, writes the SZ. According to the records, the city of Hamburg could have reclaimed taxes of 47 million euros.

Nevertheless, according to the information, Scholz received the bank manager on September 7, 2016 in his office. According to the diary entries, Olearius explained the legal position of the bank to the SPD politician.

"No concrete memory"

When the demand of the Hamburg tax authorities became more precise a few weeks later, because of the cum-ex deals, Olearius asked again for an appointment with Scholz. At this second meeting on October 26th, he handed over the draft of a multi-page letter to the tax authorities in which the bank points out that its existence would be at risk in the event of a repayment.

Less than two weeks later, according to Olearius' notes, Scholz called the bank manager and said that he should send the letter to Peter Tschentscher, the then Senator for Finance and today's First Mayor, without comment. Three days later, the Hamburg authorities decided, according to reports, to waive the recovery of the 47 million euros.

Scholz therefore admitted the three meetings with Olearius to the reporting media. But he has no concrete memory of it.

Investors took advantage of a loophole in the law for cum-ex deals. Around the dividend cut-off date, shares with ("cum") and without ("ex") dividend entitlements were shifted back and forth between several participants. In the end, it was no longer clear to the tax authorities who owned the papers. Tax offices reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid. The state suffered billions in damage.