200,000 euros in cash in a safe deposit box belonging to an influential confidant of Olaf Scholz. A tax officer celebrating a successful “diabolical plan.” The Cum-Ex investigations in Hamburg and Cologne leave today’s Chancellor no peace.
For Olaf Scholz, the cum-ex scandal remains a political sword of Damocles. He can’t get rid of the suspicion that, as Hamburg’s mayor, he had unlawfully helped a Hamburg private bank that got into trouble. On the contrary, more and more clues are emerging that further fuel this suspicion. It is not yet foreseeable how dangerous the matter can become for Chancellor Scholz.
The biggest problem for Scholz – and his confidante, the governing mayor Tschentscher – is the tenacity of the cum-ex investigators at the Cologne public prosecutor’s office. It lacks the otherwise proverbial Rhenish serenity and has now brought explosive things to light.
The Hamburg public prosecutor’s office is less dangerous for Scholz. She smashed – at high speed – a criminal complaint by the renowned Hamburg lawyer Strate against Scholz and Tschentscher, which for Strate is just proof of “the benevolence with which the public prosecutor judges the lack of memory performance of the former mayor Olaf Scholz”. In any case, the “presumed” false statements made by Scholz to a parliamentary investigative committee in Hamburg are an “imposition” for the citizens – just like the actions of the “Hamburg public prosecutor’s office, which salvaged (protected, UR.) him with this decision”.
Olaf Scholz has already testified before the U-Committee in Hamburg, testifying to his “clear conscience”. He will have to testify a second time, as of August 19th. But whether it stays that way is now unclear. The CDU opposition wants to postpone the Scholz appointment. The reason for this are new investigation results, which the Cologne public prosecutor owes, and which the opposition wants to evaluate first.
There are two facts at stake: the more than 200,000 euros plus a good 2,000 US dollars found in the locker of the Hamburger Sparkasse in the case of former Scholz confidant Johannes Kahrs. And a Whatsapp history of a Hamburg tax officer, Daniela P. The latter suggests that there was indeed political influence on the decision of the Hamburg tax authorities to waive the repayment of almost 50 million wrongly received tax refunds by the private bank Warburg.
Until his surprising resignation almost two years ago, Kahrs was an influential string puller in the SPD. He was chairman of the Seeheimer circle of social democrats, which used to be called “sewer workers” because of their underground work, which was feared in the party. Why does someone like that have so much cash in a safe deposit box?
Kahrs has not yet gotten involved. He could say that in these uncertain times he decided to keep his money under his pillow and that pillow is the safe deposit box. On the other hand, according to the investigative committee, Kahrs raised party donations for the SPD at the Hamburger Warburg-Bank – was there a consideration for this, with a Cum-Ex reference? At least that’s the suspicion. But he also wants to be proven first.
At least as explosive is the course of the chat that the Cologne investigators found with a Hamburg tax officer. So far, both Olaf Scholz and his successor Peter Tschentscher have vehemently denied having influenced the decision of the Hamburg tax authorities to help Warburg-Bank with taxes. Of course, the chat history suggests the opposite.
According to research by Cologne-based WDR, the following happened:
On November 17, 2016, the tax officer responsible for Warburg wrote to a confidante – just a few hours after the tax authorities surprisingly decided to forego the 47 million euros from cum-ex transactions. Her “diabolical plan” worked. Her friend from the Hamburg tax authorities asked whether the tax authorities would let the tax claim against the Warburg Bank expire. Daniela P. said yes – if nothing intervenes. A devilish plan? The course of the chat suggests that other departments of the Hamburg tax authorities could have been involved – such as “Amt 5” of the tax authorities, the tax authorities that reported directly to the then Finance Senator Peter Tschentscher.
The Ministry of Justice in North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed the research on request: “Chat traffic with the content you specified is known to the Ministry of Justice.” However, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office is responsible for evaluating the chat histories.
Investigative committees are sharp swords – they have investigative powers, not unlike prosecutors’ offices. The Warburg Bank has paid 150 million to the state, which they do not want to be understood as an admission of guilt in the matter of Cum Ex. Its shareholders, defended by the lawyer and long-time CSU politician Peter Gauweiler, have brought proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights. You feel pilloried.
As far as the Chancellor is concerned, there is a suspicion that he wanted to bail out the respected bank, which got into trouble via Cum Ex, “whatever it takes” as Hamburg’s mayor. That would be anything but dishonorable. Aside from the legal dimension, it would be politically problematic if a leading social democrat had allowed himself to break the bank, so to speak, against his “own” state.
Fairness – Scholz would probably say: “respect” – includes the statement that there is no conclusive evidence so far, despite all investigations by the public prosecutor and all research and questioning by the investigative committee in Hamburg. And as long as there is no “smoking gun”, Scholz does not have to fear for his chancellorship.
But the investigation continues.
