`The men who plundered Europe`: bankers on trial for siphoning EUR60bn
(The Guardian Germany)

Martin Shields and Nick Diable are accused of tax fraud in `cum-ex´ scandal that exposes City´s pursuit of profitThey have been called `the men who plundered Europe`: a group of cowboy traders, seasoned tax lawyers and mathematical whizz kids who are alleged to have conspired in the heart of the City of London to siphon at least EUR60bn in taxpayers´ money from the state coffers of several EU countries.In Britain, the so-called `cum-ex` scandal, named after the complex derivatives juggling act employed, gained little attention amid the frenzied debate around the UK´s departure from the European Union when the fraud scheme was discovered in 2017.A cum-ex deal, from the Latin meaning with-without, is a complex set of share transactions with the purpose of getting the state to reimburse a tax that was never paid in the first place. Continue reading...