German tax fraud mastermind handed further 8-year jail sentence By Reuters

WIESBADEN, Germany (Reuters) – Hanno Berger, a former tax inspector turned legal tax expert, was sentenced on Tuesday to eight years and three months in jail by a court in Wiesbaden, as the nation comes to terms with one of its biggest post-war frauds.

Berger had already been sentenced to eight years in jail in December after a similar trial. He has been the most high-profile professional to be convicted after sprawling investigations into the cum-ex dividend stripping scheme, which some experts estimate has cost German taxpayers around 10 billion euros ($11.01 billion).

Berger, who fled to Switzerland in 2012 before being extradited to Germany in February, was accused of having caused tax damage of around 113 million euros with cum-ex transactions from 2006 to 2008.

The public prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of 10 and a half years and the confiscation of assets.

Germany and Denmark are leading cross-border investigations into the trading scheme, which involved banks and investors claiming multiple bogus tax rebates on dividends, aided by now-closed loopholes in their tax systems and the failure of authorities to spot and halt the practice.

Berger’s sentences follow nearly a decade of investigations that government officials say span around 1,500 suspects and 100 banks on four continents.

The scandal has sparked a public and political outcry as ordinary Germans face a cost-of-living crisis.

Authorities have raided the German branches of companies including Barclays (LON:), Bank of America (NYSE:), JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) in their investigations. All four banks have said they are cooperating with inquiries.

In September, Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:) Corp, Germany’s Warburg Group and Deutsche Bank (ETR:) said they would pay a combined 60 million euros to tax authorities over the scandal.

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