Philip Oltermann - ‘The men who plundered Europe’: bankers on trial for defrauding €447m

Martin Shields and Nick Diable are accused of tax fraud in ‘cum-ex’ scandal worth €60bn that exposes City’s pursuit of profit

Martin Shields regrets it now, he says the money could have been used for roads and schools, but everyone was doing it, he adds. 

Some European countries are glad to get shot of Britain. 

Philip Oltermann - ‘The men who plundered Europe’: bankers on trial for defrauding €447m

They 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 €60bn in taxpayers’ money from the state coffers of several EU countries.

Shields said cum-ex trades were practised on an “industrial scale” in the first decade of the 21st century, and involved a vast network of banks, companies, brokers, lawyers and financial advisers. Even the most basic cum-ex deal involves at least 12 transactions.

The Guardian

Philip Oltermann - ‘The men who plundered Europe’: bankers on trial for defrauding €447me