Exactly one year ago to the day, Olaf Scholz started his election campaign on a square in the heart of Berlin, pumped up by a spectacular rise in the poll numbers that should lead him to victory. In the background, albeit in the angle of the cameras, an old Prussian castle was barely noticeable: it was the Berlin offices of a major Hamburg bank, MM Warburg & Co. A summer later, “the Warburg affair has the potential to bring down the chancellor ” affirms former MP Fabio De Masi (Die Linke, far left).
Coming from Hamburg, like the chancellor, he has been convinced for years that Olaf Scholz is at least indirectly involved in political and financial maneuvers that enabled the bank to emerge from the global tax optimization scandal without major damage. The ex-elected had brought the case before the Bundestag, while in the spring of 2021 an investigative commission in the city-state of Hamburg had heard the former federal finance minister and candidate for chancellor.
Also read “CumCum”, “CumEx”: The dividend scandal simply explained
Olaf Scholz’s defensive line is thin: he initially denied having met with the directors of the Warburg Bank. He now claims to have no recollection of their exchange. This avoidance strategy worked well during the campaign. On Monday, August 8, when the commission of inquiry resumed its work, the Chancellor’s spokesman followed the same tactic: “I can rule out knowledge. He also confirmed that Mr Scholz would appear again before the Commission in Hamburg on August 19.
This resumed its work after receiving the 140-page report from the Cologne public prosecutor responsible for this case.
“It will be even more uncomfortable for the chancellor. The commission’s work has only just begun,” says investigative journalist Oliver Schröm from the ARD television station. In October, the reporter, who is to publish an investigative book (on “Dossier Scholz, Chancellor, Money and Power”, Links Verlag), wants to be able to prove that Olaf Scholz lied in this case. Was the chancellor too close to the Warburg leaders? While he was Hamburg’s mayor (from 2011 to 2018), Hamburg’s financial service providers were not very choosy when it came to claiming the amounts evaded from the bank as part of the “CumEx” operations from the tax office from 2011″.
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