Police raid offices of Dutch bank ABN Amro in connection with cum-ex scandal
German authorities today confirmed a raid on the Frankfurt office of Dutch bank ABN Amro in relation to the the cum-ex dividend stripping scandal that has rocked the European financial sector.
“We can confirm that we are carrying out measures at ABN Amro in Frankfurt within the cum-ex context,” a spokesperson for the Cologne state prosecutor’s office said.
Earlier, newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and western German public broadcaster WDR reported the raid on their websites.
Citing eye witnesses, they said several police vans and passenger cars were in front of the German headquarters in Frankfurt’s banking district and officers were entering.
A spokesperson for ABN Amro said: “At this moment we confirm that it is cum-ex related and we are cooperating with German authorities.”
The cum-ex scandal led to billions of euros in losses for the treasuries of countries such as Germany, Denmark, France and Italy has led to arrests, raids and court cases dragging in some of the financial world’s largest players.
The name comes from the Latin for with-without and refers to the stocks with and without their dividends.
Cum-ex trading involved using a now-closed legal loophole to claim tax credits for both buyers and sellers of shares by buying shares just before their dividends expired and then selling them on straight away.
Numerous banks and investors are being scrutinised for their role in it.
In August it emerged that law firm Freshfields had agreed to a €50m (£42m) settlement with the administrators of the German arm of Canadian bank Maple that was closed by German authorities in 2016 for its role in the scandal. Freshfields denies all wrongdoing.
Earlier this month Auditor EY was hit with a €95m lawsuit by Maple’s administrator which it said it would fight.
Two British bankers, Nicholas Diable and Martin Shields, are the first people to go on trial for cum-ex trades. They are accused of running a phoney trading scheme to make illegitimate double tax reclaims of more than €450m.