Hanno Berger: Main defendant in Cum-Ex trial fails with constitutional complaint

The lawyer Hanno Berger, who was convicted in the Cum-Ex tax scandal, has failed in his appeal against his sentence to eight years in prison before the Federal Constitutional Court. The court in Karlsruhe said Berger had not adequately justified the complaint. It is therefore inadmissible.

In December 2022, Berger was from the regional court Bonn was sentenced to eight years in prison for three cases of tax evasion. The regional court found that he was the source of ideas, initiator and advisor in cum-ex transactions. He appealed against the judgment from Bonn to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), which rejected his appeal. The BGH ruled in September 2023 that Berger, who was extradited from Switzerland, could be prosecuted for his crimes.

Now the constitutional complaint against this decision also failed. Berger had complained about a violation of his right to be heard, the said Constitutional Court with. However, his comments primarily consist of the accusation that the Federal Court of Justice did not follow the legal opinion of its appeal. The Basic Law does not protect against this. A violation of the right to a fair trial or the right to the lawful judge is also not sufficiently explained.

In addition to the conviction in Bonn, Berger was also convicted of serious tax evasion in three other cases by the Wiesbaden Regional Court at the end of May 2023. This saw it as proven that between 2006 and 2008 Berger had procured certificates worth 113 million euros for taxes that had never actually been paid. It imposed a prison sentence of eight years and three months.

But the Wiesbaden verdict was not the issue in Karlsruhe. It is not yet legally binding. The Federal Court of Justice has not yet decided on the appeal.

Berger is considered one of the inventors of the Cum-Ex fraud system, with which investors had the tax office reimburse multiple times the capital gains tax they had paid on stock dividends.