Hamburg – AFP
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sparked a wave of laughter during his testimony before a parliamentary inquiry into the “Comics Files” scandal, on Friday. After he swore to tell the truth, he mentioned that his profession is a “lawyer”, which made the audience laugh.
The German chancellor strongly denied that he exercised any “influence” in this tax fraud on dividends in banks dating back to his tenure as mayor of Hamburg. “I did not exercise any influence over the tax procedures at Warburg Bank,” Schulz said.
This scandal relates to innovative measures instituted by banks that allow foreign investors to reduce their tax on dividends.
Dozens of people, including bankers, merchants, lawyers and financial advisors, have been accused in this case in Germany, and the frequencies of this scandal are reflected in about 10 countries.
Among the banks implicated in the scandal was Hamburg’s Warburg Bank, which had to pay 47 million euros to the city, but its municipality abandoned it in 2016. The bank was forced to pay tens of millions of euros afterwards under pressure from the government of Angela Merkel.
Investigators are trying to find out whether political leaders – including then-mayor Olaf Scholz – pressured municipal tax authorities to forgo collecting these taxes.
Schulz emphasized that there was no political influence on the tax procedures, rejecting the assumptions and insinuations reported by the media.