London Banker Faces $16 Million Bill in German Tax Case

(Bloomberg) -- Former London investment banker Martin Shields may have to pay back 14.7 million euros ($16 million) -- the money he made while working on controversial Cum-Ex deals -- a German court said.

The amount reflects the share Shields received from the profits asset management company Ballance Group made while handling deals from 2008 until 2011, Presiding Judge Roland Zickler said at a hearing in Bonn Tuesday. The finding was preliminary and could still change before the verdict.

Shields and another former London banker, Nicholas Diable, are accused at the trial of helping organize deals that led to more than 400 million euros in lost taxes. Neither man is challenging the facts prosecutors have assembled, and the court will ultimately rule on whether what they did was criminal.

“I have decided to pay back the money –- independent of any criminal guilt,” Shields told the court.

The amount is only 2 million euros more than what Shields has previously calculated himself. After Zickler disclosed the court’s math on Tuesday, Shields said he is ready to pay 3 million euros immediately and the rest once a final number is on the table.

Ensnaring Dozens

The tax case is the first over what has become a national financial scandal in Germany, ensnaring dozens of banks and financiers in a web of criminal probes. Named for a Latin term meaning “With-Without,” Cum-Ex helped investors exploit a loophole on dividend payments, allowing multiple people to claim the same tax refund. Lawmakers say the deals eventually cost the government 10 billion euros in lost revenue.

Shields was a partner at Ballance Group and Diable was a trader at the firm, which specialized in the dividend skimming deals. Under the court calculation, presented in an extended Excel sheet, Ballance made 58.8 million euros in Cum-Ex deals under review in the case.

The court’s number doesn’t include the trades handled by Shields at UniCredit SpA’s HVB unit, which are also part of the indictment. He worked on them in 2007 before he left the bank to found Ballance together with his former superior, Paul Mora.

Zickler, who noted that the court can also seize any interest that Shields earned on the money, asked him how he’d invested the funds.

“The money was invested in my family, my home, and also in property,” said Shields, a father of seven. “Given that banks made zero, I hope I was better. How much better is difficult for me to say.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Karin Matussek in Berlin at kmatussek@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.