In 2016, the Hamburg authorities failed to recover 47 million euros of fraudulently obtained money from the bank. Scholz was mayor of Hamburg at the time.
Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz was grilled by the Hamburg parliament on Friday about whether he has in any way helped a German bank in a huge so-called cum-ex tax fraud scam.
The skein, which became public in 2017, has been characterized as one of the biggest tax frauds in Europe. In it, investors fiddled with German stocks in such a way that they were able to claim unjustified tax refunds.
The hearing of the Hamburg parliament was related to why the local authorities failed to collect 47 million euros of fraudulently received tax refunds from a German bank called Warburg in 2016, and what was Scholz’s role in the matter. The tax refunds were only claimed back when the German federal government intervened.
Scholz served as mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018. He has been accused of having met with Warburg’s manager at the same time when the bank’s operations and the need for repayment were already being clarified.
Many of the questions from members of parliament were specifically related to his alleged connection with the bank’s management. Scholz defended himself by stating that, as mayor, he has met countless bankers and cannot even remember what was discussed with Warburg.
– There has been no influence, Scholz told the media at the end of his hearing.
In Germany, a former member of parliament representing the Social Democrats, like Scholz, is being investigated Johannes Kahrs act in cum-ex tapes. According to the German media, around 200,000 euros have been found in the home of the representative from Hamburg, which is suspected to be related to the cum-ex scandal.
The support of Olaf Scholz, who has served as Chancellor of Germany since 2021, has also been eaten away by, among other things, the energy crisis following Russia’s war of aggression.
According to opinion polls, 58 percent of Germans think he is doing a good job compared to his predecessor Angela Merkel’s during the period, an average of 70 percent of Germans thought the Chancellor’s work was good.