A former head of the MM Warburg German private bank who was accused of tax evasion in the sprawling Cum-Ex scandal has had charges against him dropped due to his ailing health, a court sitting in Bonn announced on Monday.
Christian Olearius, who is 82, was in court to hear the decision. He again declared that he was innocent of the charges. Both prosecution and defence had applied for the proceedings, which began in September last year, to be terminated.
The Cum-Ex scheme saw traders in Europe use a legal loophole to rapidly shift shares back and forth between parties around the time dividends were paid, in order to receive reimbursements for taxes they had not actually paid.
The German treasury is believed to have lost tens of billions of euros, most of it over the period 2006-11. In 2021, the German federal court ruled that the procedures used constituted a criminal offence.
Olearius had been accused of 15 cases of serious tax evasion, resulting in a loss to the German treasury of €280 million ($300 million).
