The canceled sessions, originally scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Bonn, are due to resume March 17, according to a news release from the court. The case involves two former employees of HypoVereinsbank accused of engaging in cum-ex transactions, in which shares of a company are sold or swapped just before a dividend payout and then followed by claims for refunds or rebates of capital gains taxes that were never paid.
The court spokesman, Tobias Gülich, told Law360 it was "difficult to answer" whether a judgment in the trial would come at the end of March as previously expected. He also noted that further requests for evidence were announced Tuesday and said those may affect the timing as well.
Cum-ex deals typically involve cross-border trading of corporate shares among a syndicate of banks, investors and hedge funds to create the impression of numerous owners, each of which claims to be entitled to reimbursement of tax payments. The trial in Bonn involves former employees of HypoVereinsbank, identified in German media as Martin S. and Nicholas D.
Gülich said the evidence request came from parties that potentially would have to pay back ill-gotten gains in the event of a guilty verdict for the two defendants. Five financial institutions, along with the two men, could be ordered to pay a total of approximately €400 million ($452 million). They are BNY Mellon, Société Générale, Hansainvest, Warburg Group and a subsidiary, Warburg Invest.
Gülich said the recent evidence requests came from all of the institutions except for Hansainvest, which had made such a request earlier.
--Editing by Robert Rudinger.
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