German prosecutors raid Commerzbank in tax evasion probe

FAN Editor
A Commerzbank logo is pictured before the bank's annual news conference in Frankfurt
A Commerzbank logo is pictured before the bank’s annual news conference in Frankfurt, Germany, February 9, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

November 10, 2017

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s Commerzbank <CBKG.DE> has become the target of a tax evasion probe in which several current and former managers are suspected of evading 40 million euros ($47 million) in taxes via so-called “cum-ex” transactions.

Prosecutors said on Friday they had searched the offices of a major Frankfurt bank and private homes this week.

The bank involved was Commerzbank, according to a person familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, who was not authorized to speak publicly on an ongoing investigation.

Commerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest lender, said it was cooperating with authorities but wouldn’t comment on the raid.

Using cum-ex transactions, also known as dividend stripping, banks in Germany exploited a legal loophole that allowed two parties to claim ownership of the same shares.

The legal news agency Juve first reported the news.

Frankfurt prosecutors, together with the federal crime police and tax officials, conducted the search on Tuesday. It included the offices of the bank as well as the flats of three suspects in Frankfurt and nearby Hanau.

The investigation focuses on five current and former employees aged between 51 and 63, as well as unknown individuals suspected of involvement in the scheme to evade 40 million euros of taxes from 2006 to 2010, prosecutors said.

($1 = 0.8590 euros)

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan, Tom Sims and Hans Seidenstuecker; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Adrian Croft)

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