Her Chancellor Germany, Olaf Soltzknew absolutely nothing about the money found in the safe deposit box of his former partner and alleged partner in the Cum-Ex scandal, Social Democratic Party (SPD) MP Johannes Kars, a government spokesman said.

“At the end of next week, the Chancellor will testify for the second time before the Commission of Inquiry into the Warburg scandal of the Hamburg Parliament. Anything that needs to be said will be answered there,” said government spokesman Steven Hembestrait, and asked if Mr. Soltz knew ahead of time of the €214,800 and $2,400 in cash found in Mr. Kars’ locker, he categorically replied: “No, I can rule it out.”

According to BILD, as part of the Cum-Ex investigation, cash was found in Mr. Kars’ safe deposit box, but it is not yet known whether possession of this amount is illegal. But pressure from the opposition is mounting and is particularly focused on the personality of Olaf Solz, who was mayor/governor of Hamburg during the controversial period. “It is not at all clear where the money came from and to what extent the social democratic network in Hamburg benefited from these events,” Christoph Ploss, head of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) in Hamburg, told Der Spiegel magazine. clarify the situation of the SPD at the central level. “Either Mr. Kars will prove the source of the money, or he will exercise his right not to speak due to the ongoing investigation against him. In the latter case, it is logical that the money is connected to the Cum-Ex case, and then the chancellor also has problems,” said former left-wing MP Fabio De Masi.

The Cum-Ex case concerns a €55 billion tax evasion scandal involving banks and the rebate of taxes on capital gains, mainly on dividends. The controversial deals, known as Cum-Ex, cost the state about 10 billion euros in Germany alone. It was a continuous transfer of shares with or without dividend rights (cum) or without them (ex) in order to keep the true identity of the beneficiary unknown.

A commission of inquiry set up by the state parliament in Hamburg is investigating the possibility that high-ranking SPD politicians influenced the tax decisions of Hamburg’s Warburg Bank, which is also implicated in the scandal. In this context, the meetings of Mr. Soltz with the bank’s shareholders Christian Olearius and Max Warburg are also being investigated. The chancellor said that he did not remember these meetings, but categorically ruled out any political influence.

However, in a new publication, BILD tonight reported that the Hamburg prosecutor’s office is also investigating Olaf Soltz’s e-mails, since the messages he received on 01/01/2015 are considered part of the investigation. In addition, as reported by Hamburger Abendblatt, the investigation concerns a possible political committee to cancel a tax claim of 47 million euros from Warburg Bank. Mr Soltz will testify before the Commission on 19 August.

^{Source: APE-MEB}