German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will appear before a committee on Friday, August 19 as part of investigations into a financial scandal that has cost the government billions, as the leader struggles to shed suspicions over his possible role in the huge tax fraud scandal.

Mr. Scholz will testify 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. Mr. Scholz was the mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, when he became finance minister in the cabinet of then Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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

The Hamburg committee is investigating why local finance authorities in 2016 dropped a bid to claw back 47 million euros in taxes from private bank M. M. Warburg over cum-ex trades. The bank eventually had to pay back tens of millions of euros under pressure from Ms. Merkel's federal government.

According to German media reports, investigators have examined emails from the account used by Mr. Scholz during his time as the mayor of Hamburg in connection with the scandal.

The grilling in Hamburg comes as Mr. Scholz is already 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 also struggled to reassure Germans over possible energy shortages this winter and the very real prospect of a recession in Europe's biggest economy.

Mr. 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.

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Mr. Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit on Wednesday assured journalists that the chancellor would answer all of the committee's questions and had nothing to hide. Asked about the scandal himself during a summer press conference last week, Mr. Scholz said he had "commented on these things very extensively and for many hours and will do so again". He added: "A huge number of hearings, a huge number of files have brought only one result: there are no findings that there was political influence."

But rumours are swirling that the decision to let Warburg off the hook was taken shortly after a conversation between Mr. Scholz and Christian Olearius, then head of the bank. Mr. Scholz has denied exerting pressure on Hamburg's tax authority over Warburg's cum-ex activity, but new allegations in recent days allege he may yet be hiding something.

According to several German media reports, investigators have seized emails from Mr. Scholz's former office manager Jeanette Schwamberger that could bring new evidence to light. These emails are "potentially relevant to the evidence, as they suggest considerations around deleting data," according to the reports. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper said the emails clearly "incriminate" Mr. Scholz.

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Other newly seized documents reportedly suggest that Mr. Scholz, contrary to what he has claimed so far, did raise the subject of reimbursement directly with Mr. Olearius. These latest revelations suggest that Mr. Scholz and his people have "tried to provide only limited information on certain meetings or telephone conversations", said Matthias Hauer, an opposition conservative MP.

Johannes Kahrs, a former MP with Mr. Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) party, is also under investigation as part of the Hamburg probe. According to German media, investigators recently found around 200,000 euros in cash in a bank safe deposit box belonging to Mr. Kahrs, though it is unclear whether the find has anything to do with the cum-ex scandal.

Asked about the cash at the summer press conference, Mr. Scholz said: "I'm as curious as you are, and of course I'd like to know where it came from."

German lawmakers said Tuesday that they would seek to open an investigation into Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s possible involvement as mayor of Hamburg in a tax fraud scam that cost the government millions of euros.

The probe would look at whether political figures helped the private bank M.M. Warburg to avoid paying back falsely claimed tax rebates in Hamburg, MPs from the conservative CDU and CSU parties said at a press conference.

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The inquiry would also look at whether Scholz’s previous statements in relation to the scam were “believable,” said Mathias Middelberg, deputy leader of the conservative group in the Bundestag.

Scholz, who was mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, has repeatedly been forced to reject allegations he was involved in the decision to let the bank off the hook.

The chancellor is already facing a similar parliamentary inquiry in Hamburg, one of Germany’s 16 federal states.

The Hamburg committee is investigating why local finance authorities in 2016 dropped a bid to claw back 47 million euros ($48 million) in taxes from Warburg over so-called cum-ex trades.

First exposed in 2017, the “cum-ex” scandal involved numerous participants swiftly exchanging company shares amongst themselves around the day of dividend payments, to claim multiple tax rebates on a single payout.

Used across Europe, the tax scheme is estimated to have left a multibillion-euro hole in Germany’s public finances.

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 former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A quarter of MPs in the Bundestag -- 184 deputies -- are needed to open a parliamentary inquiry. The opposition conservative group numbers 197 MPs.

Jogs1900:
Una don start again.Very soon the government will be putting tribes on our passports. The Chancellors visit to Nigeria pained you people.

2027 is still far.

Appletek:


Let the government put tribes in our passports. That will help solve a very big problem.

But my brothers, You will see Okechuku Uche claiming Benue state

Urheadmaster:
The same German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the minister of FCT was licking is arsh in Abuja the other day