Fallout From Europe’s Biggest Tax Scandal Is Only Getting Larger
Investigators have named more than 1,800 suspects and raided over a dozen international banks in a probe that could drag on for years
Police officers carry out a raid in connection with the Cum-Ex investigation, in Frankfurt’s banking district in Germany, in 2020.
Photographer: Frank Rumpenhorst/picture alliance/Getty Images
When the defense lawyer spotted the woman with long ash-blond hair on the train from Cologne to Frankfurt, he was alarmed. Her presence could only mean one thing: another raid was in store for an international investment bank.
The woman was Anne Brorhilker, head of the department at the Cologne prosecutors’ office currently overseeing the biggest Cum-Ex investigation in Europe. For more than a year, her unit had been targeting the German offices of international banks, raiding one after another. The first hit were Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch and Barclays Plc, then, in monthly instalments, Morgan Stanley, BNP, Nomura and many of their peers.