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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s former international head of tax instructed a Frankfurt courtroom he “completely failed” as a lawyer and “glossed over the truth that my authorized recommendation was used for unlawful means”, as he stands trial for his alleged function in a dividend scandal.
Ulf Johannemann, who till 2019 earned €1.9mn a 12 months because the “magic circle” agency’s most senior tax professional, faces allegations of aiding and abetting tax fraud by giving flawed authorized recommendation to Maple Financial institution, a defunct German subsidiary of Canada’s Maple Monetary.
On Monday, he addressed the courtroom in a quick assertion. “With regard to the Maple mandate, I completely failed as a authorized adviser,” he mentioned. “I take full duty for my errors.” He has been on trial since September.
From 2006 to 2009, Maple Financial institution duped German tax authorities into refunding greater than €388mn in dividend taxes that have been by no means really paid. Johannemann had argued in authorized opinions that the “cum-ex” transactions have been authorized.
Earlier this month, the presiding choose said that the 52-year-old was “extremely doubtless” to be found guilty on most charges.
Johannemann, who has not addressed particular fees in courtroom, mentioned he now realised his “fundamental method to authorized consulting” fell wanting skilled requirements. “As a younger lawyer, I learnt from skilled companions to align the authorized recommendation intently to the shopper’s calls for,” he mentioned, including that he learnt to place apart “my very own authorized opinion if extra skilled colleagues took completely different views”.
Johannemann left Freshfields in November 2019 after Frankfurt legal prosecutors briefly arrested him as a part of a broader probe. He instructed the choose that he hoped to work as a lawyer and tax adviser once more, however had centered on his household and his private authorized points for the previous 4 years.
The lawyer acknowledged that from 2006, he thought-about it doable that Maple Financial institution didn’t share “the total fact” of its cum-ex transactions with him, admitting that “I didn’t wish to realize it”.
He conceded that he had “switched off my frequent sense” as he centered on a formalistic utility of the regulation.
“I glossed over the truth that my authorized recommendation was used for unlawful means,” he instructed the courtroom, including that his skilled profession was now in tatters. “My method was mistaken, and I mustn’t have stored quiet.”
A number of former Maple workers have already been sentenced to jail phrases over the financial institution’s conduct. A verdict is more likely to be reached by the top of subsequent month.
Freshfields has prevented direct prosecution over its recommendation to Maple, placing a deal in 2021 involving a voluntary cost of €10mn to the German tax authority. The agency has additionally paid €50mn to the administrator of Maple Financial institution.
The regulation agency has beforehand mentioned in relation to the trial that “Freshfields is just not a celebration to those proceedings, which relate to occasions greater than a decade in the past, and won’t be commenting on the end result”.
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