Cum-Ex scandal: Investigators check the e-mails to Chancellor Scholz

Emails were investigated in March and covered the period from January 1st 2015, when Scholz was mayor of the city of Hamburg.

Scholz was in office until 2018, when he became finance minister in the cabinet of former ancelare Angela Merkel.

For the first time on display in 2017, fraud “cum-ex” included numerous participants who quickly exchanged shares among them around the divident's day to request multiple tax cuts for a single payment.

Tens of people have been indicted for the scandal in Germany, including bankers, shareholders, lawyers and financial consultants.

The investigation has now expanded on a 2016 decision by financial authorities in Hamburg City to give up an offer to withdraw 47m euros in taxes from the private bank M. M. Warburg on such quam-ex trade.

Investigators are considering whether and how political figures had influenced that decision.

Scholz will be tested for the second time by a parliamentary commission in Hamburg next Friday for the scandal.

His spokesman, Stephen Hebestreet, told Hamburger Abendblat that he was unaware of the investigation into Scholz emails.

He added that “has nothing to hide”.

German media had reported that shortly after a telephone conversation between Scholz and the former head of the Warburg bank, Christian Olearius, the tax authorities removed 47m euros' demand to the company.

But Scholz has refused to pressure Hamburg's tax authority on Warburg's cum-ex activity.