From Star Performer to Star Witness: A Cum-Ex Trader Cooperates - Bloomberg
For an employee who raked in millions each year, one of Duet Group’s top traders maintained fairly irregular desk hours.
Some days he wouldn’t set foot at all inside the office on the fourth floor of Al Fattan Tower in Dubai’s financial center, according to former colleagues who asked not to be identified discussing corporate life. But for a few weeks each spring, when European companies dole out dividends, the trader -- whom Bloomberg is choosing to call A. for legal reasons -- would log long days at his desk and generate huge profits for his firm.
Those deals have come back to haunt Duet, after A. turned from a star performer to a star witness for German prosecutors. A.’s story reveals the far-reaching net that continues to entangle individuals and firms who were engaged in so-called Cum-Ex transactions, almost a decade after the dividend-tax practice ended. London-based Duet at its peak had several billion dollars under management and allegedly played a key role in arranging the deals.
A., who left the firm in 2015, is one of the first traders to cooperate with an investigation into what German lawmakers say is one of the biggest tax heists in European history. He joins a handful of finance industry figures who did Cum-Ex trades at other firms and have provided testimony about former employers, colleagues and counterparties -- cooperation that has helped some of them stay out of jail.
This story is based on London court filings and an indictment against two bankers -- convicted last year -- assembled by German authorities, as well as conversations with more than a dozen people involved in the probe and familiar with Duet’s operations. They asked not to be identified because details of the case remain confidential.
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