'The men who plundered Europe': bankers on trial for defrauding €447m

[editor]

So many people struggling to get by and these fuckers are busy lining their pockets. No doubt their super expensive lawyers will help them wriggle off the hook (or get a sentence comparable to sosoe who has nicked a Mars Bar from a local shop) .

They have been called “the men who plundered Europe”: a group of cowboy traders, seasoned tax lawyers and mathematical whizz kids who are alleged to have conspired in the heart of the City of London to siphon at least €60bn in taxpayers’ money from the state coffers of several EU countries.

In Britain, the so-called “cum-ex” scandal, named after the complex derivatives juggling act employed, gained little attention amid the frenzied debate around the UK’s departure from the European Union when the fraud scheme was discovered in 2017.

But in continental Europe what Le Monde has described as the “robbery of the century” has done almost as much to shape the view of Britain as Brexit itself. Dutch media has called it “organised crime in pinstripe suits” and one of the original German whistleblowers saying he now welcomes Britain’s exit from the EU in the hope it could weaken the influence of London investment banking on European financial institutions.

This week, a British former investment banker involved in developing the scheme for the first time gave the public an insight into how the scheme worked and what spurred on its architects.

Speaking at a regional court in Bonn, Martin Shields, one of two former bankers on trial for 34 instances of serious tax fraud between 2006 and 2011, painted a picture of a London banking scene which lured in the brightest scientists from the country’s top universities and used them to boost their profit margins – without teaching them about the moral and legal consequences of their actions in return.

'The men who plundered Europe': bankers on trial for defrauding €447m

 

[petee]

the so-called “cum-ex” scandal

eww

 

[DotCommunist]

the outgone SFO bod said he spent something like 25% of his time fighting attempts to shut them down by the home secretary and as she later became, prime minister. They are always at it.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

the outgone SFO bod said he spent something like 25% of his time fighting attempts to shut them down by the home secretary and as she later became, prime minister. They are always at it.

Am I reading that correctly? The home secretary (later prime minister) was forever trying to shut down the serious fraud office?

 

[DotCommunist]

Am I reading that correctly? The home secretary (later prime minister) was forever trying to shut down the serious fraud office?

possibly related to this:
SFO under threat from Tory plans

 

[Mrs Miggins]

possibly related to this:
SFO under threat from Tory plans

Jesus christ

 

[High Voltage]

Shields, who was born in County Down in Northern Ireland and studied engineering at Oxford University, and Diable face potential prison sentences of 10 years but can hope for a more lenient judgment after indicating their willingness to help Germany’s state prosecutor with investigations.

He should only lose one hand - left or right, doesn't matter

 

[alex_]

So many people struggling to get by and these fuckers are busy lining their pockets. No doubt their super expensive lawyers will help them wriggle off the hook (or get a sentence comparable to sosoe who has nicked a Mars Bar from a local shop) .

'The men who plundered Europe': bankers on trial for defrauding €447m

This is crazy - how do you claim two tax rebates but only pay once and this is not picked up for years ?

“Cum-Ex” trades involved the acquisition of shares with (cum) dividends due on or just before the dividend record date and delivery of these shares after the dividend record date without (ex) dividends, which made it possible to obtain multiple returns of capital gains tax that had only been paid to the German tax authorities once.

.....

“Cum-Ex” trading was formally prohibited in Germany in 2012, but the German tax authorities are looking at the trades before this date to determine if the practices engaged in by the banks constituted tax evasion. The authorities are also examining the roles of various accountancy firms and law firms who were involved in the development of the tax-models which were used.

( from Cum-Ex trading scandal in Germany – A huge challenge for financial institutions and the insurance industry - DAC Beachcroft )

How was this ever legal ?

Alex

 

[dylanredefined]

So someone who thinks about becoming a jihadi ends up in a black site getting tortured these guys get off.

 

[agricola]

the outgone SFO bod said he spent something like 25% of his time fighting attempts to shut them down by the home secretary and as she later became, prime minister. They are always at it.

I think that might have been her one sane idea whilst she was Home Secretary - the SFO is a failed institution, never having had the resources or more importantly the support required to do what it was set up to do. Its only real purpose seems to be that its name suggests that the British Government would do something about serious fraud (other than encourage it).

 

[Poi E]

Fraud is at the heart of the UK. You don't maintain a rigid class system and gain an empire by straight dealing. You shed blood, toil, sweat and tears to maintain the lie of "fair play".