The cum-ex judgment of the Frankfurt district court against former managers of Maple Bank is to be appealed. The Attorney General’s Office has appealed, said a spokesman for the German Press Agency on Tuesday. However, the move does not aim at the prison sentences imposed, rather one wants to achieve a higher inclusion of proceeds from the assets of the ex-bankers. The aim is for the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), as the higher authority, to review the court’s calculations. The defense also wants to appeal the verdict for three defendants.
At the beginning of November, the Frankfurt Regional Court imposed high prison sentences on former Maple bankers for tax evasion and aiding and abetting. The former Germany boss was sentenced to four years and four months in prison and a fine. In addition, 2.9 million euros in proceeds from his assets will be confiscated. Two other men received prison sentences of four years and two months and three and a half years respectively. One has to pay back one million euros in proceeds from the crimes, the other 805,000 euros. A fourth ex-banker got away with two years of probation, and 5.7 million euros will be confiscated from his assets.
Confusion through legal loopholes
In cum-ex deals, banks and other financial players used a loophole in the law to cheat the state. Around the dividend date, shares with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) a right to a dividend were pushed back and forth between several participants. It was a confusing game, at the end of which the tax offices reimbursed capital gains taxes that had not been paid at all. The Treasury was estimated damage of at least ten billion euros.The tax loophole was only closed in 2012. The Federal Court of Justice ruled in 2021 that cum-ex transactions are to be considered tax evasion.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the cum-ex share deals of Maple Bank, which went bankrupt in 2016, caused tax damage of a good 388 million euros – an exceptionally high sum. When the bankers were sentenced, there was talk of “considerable criminal activity”. The men did not trade stocks through a complex structure, but in circles within the Maple group.
