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• Anne Broh Hilker, a former senior prosecutor in Cologne, led the Cum-Ex investigations and later moved to the NGO Finanzwende. In this interview, she explains the largest tax scandal in German history and the structural obstacles to prosecuting it.

• Cum-Ex and Cum-Cum are fake trades (so-called tax trades) designed solely to evade or reclaim taxes.
• Shares are shuffled around just before the dividend record date, causing the tax office to refund capital gains tax multiple times even though it was only paid once.
• Key point: These practices were never legal – there was no legal loophole. The perpetrators deliberately broke the law. The myth of a loophole was spread through years of targeted lobbying.

• The investigations were extremely complex: cross-border legal assistance, deleted data, intimidated whistleblowers, and massive counter-attacks via litigation PR – including public smearing of investigators.
• Raiding banks was unusual at the time; Broh Hilker had to overcome internal resistance.
• So far, about €3.1 billion of an estimated €10 billion damage from Cum-Ex has been recovered. For Cum-Cum (estimated at up to €28.5 billion), progress is much slower (only around €200 million).

• The case of Warburg Bank in Hamburg is particularly troubling. The financial administration waived tax claims for years, despite courts confirming the illegality.
• Olaf Scholz, then First Mayor, bore political responsibility as head of the administration but consistently claimed ignorance. A parliamentary committee found no criminal guilt, but political trust remains severely damaged.

• Federalism and three pillars: Police, customs, and tax investigation work separately – information often gets lost. A central federal agency for major economic crime is missing.
• Cross-border challenges: German investigators face data protection and legal assistance hurdles. Data kept in „data havens“ like the Netherlands or the UK is hard to access.
• Resource imbalance: The financial industry has a lobbying budget of €40 million, while civil society groups like Finanzwende operate on around €130,000.

• Lobbying itself is legitimate, but the huge imbalance distorts political decisions. One example: A proposed shortening of data retention periods was reversed after a successful petition, because it would have destroyed evidence of tax fraud.

• Stay informed (e.g., newsletters from Finanzwende, LobbyControl).
• Sign petitions, contact local representatives, or join email campaigns.
• Use democratic participation between elections.

• Broh Hilker is cautiously optimistic: The problems are recognized, but political pressure from outside is needed to push through reforms such as a central anti-tax-fraud unit or better cross-border investigation powers.
• The interview shows: White-collar crime costs the state billions – and thus every citizen.

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