By Matthias Inverardi and Marta Orosz
BONN, Germany (Reuters) -A German lawyer painted by politicians as the mastermind behind one of the country’s biggest post-war frauds was on Tuesday convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison after a landmark trial.
Hanno Berger, a 72-year-old former tax inspector turned prominent tax lawyer and adviser, is the most high profile professional to be convicted over the cum-ex dividend stripping scheme, that some German experts say has cost taxpayers around 10 billion euros ($10.54 billion).
The court ordered him to repay more than 13 million euros.
Germany and Denmark are leading cross-border investigations into the trading scheme, which involved banks and investors claiming multiple bogus tax rebates on dividends, aided by now-closed loopholes in their tax systems and the failure of authorities to spot and halt the practice at the time.
Berger’s sentence is the harshest handed down to date by German judges after around eight years of investigations that government officials say span around 1,500 suspects and 100 banks on four continents.
In closing remarks at the Bonn court last week, prosecutors accused Berger of orchestrating tax scams that siphoned 278 million euros from German taxpayers.
Berger has also been charged separately by Frankfurt prosecutors over another alleged cum-ex tax fraud, valued at 113 million euros, and faces a second criminal trial in the German city of Wiesbaden next year.
($1 = 0.9484 euros)
(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi and Marta Orosz, writing by Kirstin Ridley, editing by Kirsten Donovan)
