German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denies influence in tax fraud probe

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he believed he had been exonerated after being grilled by a committee on his potential role in a huge tax fraud scam that cost the government billions. Scholz had testified for the second time to the parliamentary committee in Hamburg, which is probing whether local political figures helped a bank to avoid paying back falsely claimed tax rebates.

Scholz was the mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018 and has lately been repeatedly forced to beat back allegations he was involved in the decision to let the bank off the hook.

The hearing on Friday had produced a “clear conclusion”, Scholz said in a closing statement to the press: “There is nothing there. There was no influence.”

Scholz had answered questions for around three and a half hours — less time than expected — with the chancellor suggesting the relatively speedy finish “perhaps speaks for the fact that everything is now on the table”.
The parliamentary committee is probing why local finance authorities in 2016 dropped a bid to claw back 47 million euros ($48-million) in taxes from private bank M. M. Warburg over so-called cum-ex trades.

Arriving at the hearing, the chancellor had eyed the room with a grim expression before reiterating his innocence, declaring: “I had no influence on the Warburg tax proceedings.”

First exposed in 2017, the “cum-ex” scandal involved numerous participants swiftly exchanging company shares amongst themselves around dividend day to claim multiple tax rebates on a single payout. The scam has seen dozens of people indicted in Germany, including bankers, stock traders, lawyers and financial consultants.

Warburg eventually had to pay back tens of millions of euros under pressure from the federal government under then chancellor Angela Merkel.

The grilling in Hamburg came with Scholz facing dismal popularity ratings after his first six months in office were tarnished by criticism over his perceived weak response to the war in Ukraine.

More recently, the chancellor has struggled to reassure Germans over possible energy shortages this winter and the very real prospect of a recession in Europe’s biggest economy.

Scholz also this week faced a backlash over his failure to immediately condemn comments on the Holocaust made in Berlin by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
The chancellor appeared calm and confident at the hearing, standing by statements he made in his previous testimony. He described allegations of political influence in the Warburg case as “false and recognisably not supported by anything or anyone”.

Source: eNCA

In other news – Nota Baloyi’s estranged wife Berita Finally speaks out

Nota Baloyi has reinvented him from respectable artist manager and music executive to a podcast contributor and too many the male version of Ntsiki Mawzai on Twitter.

Possibly, a version of Mazwai on steroids, but the none the less a comparison is usually made. Learn more