Short Sellers Started ‘Twisting’ Tax Trades to Dodge Scrutiny
- Lawyer who helped develop tax strategy testifies at Bonn trial
- ‘Bankers and traders saw to it that machinery could go on’
Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg
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Banks and lawyers involved in Cum-Ex trades started to hide their ties to short selling as early as 2009 amid a government crackdown on the controversial tax practice.
A lawyer who was heavily involved in Cum-Ex deals told a Bonn court Tuesday that people involved started omitting the phrase short selling from communications to avoid scrutiny after Germany issued new rules in 2009 targeted that element in the transactions. Nevertheless, everyone involved knew what they had to do without spelling it out, he said.