Theres a paywall on that article Burns. I'd ask you to copy paste it but I'm not sure I actually want to read them puff paragraphs 😆
Was just wondering, it's not like it's major news but a number of financial news outlets have reported it and it's not just niche papers either. In case you're interested they are heavily involved in what's called Cum Ex tax fraud.
The short explanation is an investor A buys stock shortly before dividends are paid from another investor B who himself doesn't own the stock but needs to loan them from investor C. When dividends are paid out from the emitter the PLC keeps 25% tax, but after the short sale is wound up (after payout and stock return to their owners) both A and C have a claim for a tax credit equivalent even though only one of them paid tax. I called it tax fraud but literally speaking it's closer to tax theft, the investors didn't simply not pay tax that was due they actively stole taxpayer money from the state. The official figure given is around 55bn EUR were stolen that way, most of it in Germany but neighbouring countries too, but I have it on good authority that the actual figure is far bigger.
Anyway Macquarie weren't the worst offenders by any means or more aggressive in how they facilitated the scam, their mistake was when everyone else knew the jig was up and that authorities finally woke up they still wouldn't keep their hand out of the taxpayer pocket. Released emails show that even the few voices at the bank who warned about the risk of being discovered now that BaFin knew about this were disregarded or in one case even hounded out.
Either way, normally I wouldn't be surprised if nothing came out of this investigation but the documents that have found their way to the public show a blatantly egregious disregard of what you expect in terms of criminal prudence, so I wouldn't be surprised if the authorities felt their hand is forced this time around and they make an example of Shawarma and her gang.
