Despite high‑profile tax scandals such as Cum‑Ex and Cum‑Cum, criminals in Germany’s financial sector still frequently escape punishment.
“There’s a fatal imbalance of power” said former chief prosecutor Anne Brorhilker in an interview with the Tagesspiegel. She believes that with other methods, these illegal deals would continue even today.
Brorhilker led the investigation into the Cum‑Ex scandal, where banks, lawyers and other market participants enriched themselves at the public’s expense through fictitious share deals. They repeatedly claimed refunds on capital‑gains taxes that had never actually been paid. The resulting damage is estimated at around €12 billion. After retiring from the prosecution service, she left the office at a time of dispute and became chair of the finance‑focused NGO “Finanzwende” in 2024.
According to the lawyer, public administration remains structurally weak, giving criminals a “handful of opportunities”. “On one side there is a poorly organized bureaucracy plagued by numerous structural problems that even the big fish do not dare to challenge” she said. “On the other side stands a highly resourced financial sector that can not only stir up opposition in specific cases but also exert its interests in the political arena with little restriction”.
She noted that the Bundestag’s lobby register lists more than 500 lobbyists representing banks and insurers, while the finance committee has 42 members. “Each member is thus faced with more than ten lobbyists from the financial sector” the jurist criticized.
Brorhilker calls for a reform of the administration to enable large‑scale tax‑fraud prosecution. “I am in favor of a specialized central body at the federal level where knowledge is consolidated and checks are centralized” she told the Tagesspiegel. This “small, powerful, interdisciplinary” group would review applications for capital‑gains tax refunds and investigate cases of tax evasion and money laundering.
