Hanno Berger, a German lawyer dubbed the "mastermind" of Cum-Ex, received a second conviction for his part in a tax scandal that's robbed billions of euros from government coffers and embroiled some of Wall Street's biggest names.
Berger, 72, was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison by a Wiesbaden court on Tuesday. Berger has been on trial for his role in Cum-Ex deals that allegedly caused a tax loss of €113 million ($121 million). The court also ordered Berger to pay just over €1 million in compensation.
Frankfurt prosecutors, who brought the charges, had asked the court for a prison term of 10 years and six months. Berger has vigorously rejected any wrongdoing and sought an acquittal. Lawyers for Berger didn't immediately return calls and an email seeking comment.
German extradition
Once one of Germany's most profitable tax attorneys, Berger fled in 2012 when his Frankfurt law firm was raided as part of the probe. After more than nine years in Switzerland, he was
The Wiesbaden case covered Cum-Ex deals set up at Unicredit SpA's HVB investment bank unit in London from 2006 to 2008 and valued at €15.8 billion. The deals were done to produce refunds of €113 million on tax that allegedly were never paid.
Cum-Ex took advantage of laws that seemed to allow duplicate refunds on dividend taxes that siphoned off massive amounts of government revenue over several years.
At the end of his Wiesbaden trial, Berger took three days to deliver the "last word" granted to him as a defendant, a ritual that the accused typically spend only a few minutes to say.
It's Berger's second conviction over the tax scandal. In December, a Bonn court in a separate case found him
Interpol most wanted
Two ex-HVB-bankers last year were convicted in the case and handed suspended sentences. Three London ex-bankers are still awaiting trial. One of them is Paul Mora who has been put on Interpol's most wanted list in 2021 after he failed to show in court.
If both of Berger's convictions are upheld, then the court that gave him the longer sentence will have to consolidate the two verdicts and determine the total number of years he will have to serve. The maximum he could get is 15 years.
Berger was a key player, advising rich investors on how to use the strategy that until about 2005 had been limited to the trading between banks. Germany is looking at more than 1,800 suspects from across the financial industry and banks from Morgan Stanley to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
