A former banker was handed a 3-1/2 year jail sentence on Wednesday for his part in Germany's biggest post-war fraud, a scam that involved scores of banks and investors engineering multi-billion-euro trades to make bogus tax claims.
The banker, identified as Detlef M., in line with court reporting practices in Germany, is a former employee of M.M. Warburg group, part-owned by one of Germany's oldest banking dynasties. He is the second person to receive a jail sentence for trading activity that thrived during the years after the financial crash and cost Germany more than five billion euros ($5.72 billion).
The fraud involved trading shares rapidly around a syndicate of banks, investors and hedge funds to give the impression of numerous owners, each entitled to a bogus tax rebate.
