Emails casting doubt on Scholz's testimony in tax fraud case released

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
22 Aug 2023 20:00

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's testimony in a tax fraud case has come under scrutiny after German magazine Stern obtained emails from his inner circle.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a press conference with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili in the chancellery in Berlin in 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)

German publication Stern has obtained emails from within the inner circle of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that raise doubts about his testimony in relation to the cum-ex tax evasion scheme.

In 2018, the media in Germany exposed the cum-ex scheme, which exploited a loophole in dividend payments to enable multiple returns of capital gains tax. One of the beneficiaries, the Hamburg-based Warburg Bank, was found to have misappropriated 47 million euros ($52 million) in 2009 through cum-ex deals.

Scholz, the former mayor and chairman of the then-ruling Social Democratic Party in Hamburg, allegedly had meetings with the bank's co-owners in 2016-2017 and advised them on avoiding refunds of the misappropriated funds. While Scholz admitted to meetings with Max Warburg and Christian Olearius, he claimed not to remember the content of their discussions.

However, an email from Scholz's former office chief Jeanette Schwamberger to his current chief of staff, Wolfgang Schmidt, revealed that there was no scheduled meeting with Olearius on Scholz's calendar in 2017, according to Stern.

Schwamberger's email expressed frustration and disbelief at the absence of any records for the meeting. Schmidt responded by affirming that the meeting had indeed taken place in November 2017.

Scholz maintained that he had no political influence on tax refunds during that time. Nevertheless, it appeared that he did not note the meeting with the bankers on his business calendar and only attempted to rectify this later, Stern reported.

In February 2022, lawyer Gerhard Strate filed a lawsuit accusing Scholz and his successor, the incumbent mayor of Hamburg, Peter Tschentscher, of aiding and abetting tax evasion in connection with the Cum-Ex scandal involving the Warburg bank. The Prosecutor General's Office dismissed the lawsuit as "unfounded".