Are the 200,000 euros in Johannes’ locker related to cum-ex deals? And what did Olaf Scholz know about all this? The journalist Oliver Schröm says the Chancellor is lying – and he can prove it.

The discovery of 200,000 euros in cash in a safe deposit box belonging to Johannes Kahrs, a member of the SPD for many years, electrified political Berlin: Because the money could be related to cum-ex transactions by the Warburg Bank – and could be dangerous for Olaf Scholz.

At least that’s what the journalist and author Oliver Schröm claims. He has dealt intensively with the Hamburg cum-ex scandal and wants to publish a book about it in the fall. Title: “The Scholz files. The chancellor, the money and the power.”

In an interview with the “Tagesspiegel” Schröm raises serious allegations against the Chancellor, even accusing him of lying. According to Schröm, his book will prove that. “When Olaf Scholz says he can’t remember anything, the Chancellor is lying.” So far, Scholz has denied any influence and testified before the investigative committee that he could not remember the content of the talks with the Warburg bankers.

Read here: “Anti-democratic methods”: SPD man describes the “Kahrs system”

“By the way, it’s not just about his meetings with the private bankers. But also about talks with Johannes Kahrs and another SPD politician on the Warburg issue, which Scholz cannot remember. It remains to be seen whether and how well these gentlemen remember the conversations. As is well known, one of the private bankers kept a diary about his discussions with Scholz on the tax issue,” Schröm told the “Tagesspiegel.”

Long-standing SPD MP Marco Bülow also believes that the EUR 200,000 is just the tip of the iceberg. He was also a member of the Bundestag from 2002 to 2021 – and thus at the time when Kahrs was also making a career at federal level. During this time, almost every parliamentarian knew that “there are shaky deals going on in which Kahrs is involved,” Bülow told the “Spiegel”.

And further: “I am firmly convinced that the 200,000 euros in the room are only a small part of the money that flowed directly or indirectly to Kahrs or to other beneficiaries that he mediated.”

Bülow resigned from the SPD in 2018 due to persistent “substantive and personal upsets”. In 2020 he became a member of the satirical party DIE PARTEI.