Freshfields

https://www.ft.com/content/90212cf6-562b-11e9-91f9-b6515a54c5b1 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the ‘magic circle’ law firm, is being sued for €95m over its advisory role in controversial share-swapping schemes that allegedly allowed investors to reclaim billions of euros in tax they never paid. The civil lawsuit against the London-based law firm was filed at a Frankfurt regional court by the liquidator of the defunct German lender Maple Bank, a court spokesman told the Financial Times. Maple Bank was closed down by the German financial regulator BaFin in 2016 as it was overwhelmed by a demand to repay several hundreds of millions in taxes that were illicitly claimed in so called “cum-ex” trades linked to the lender.  These transactions, which exploited a design flaw in Germany’s tax code, allowed clients to trick tax authorities into refunding dividend tax that was never paid.  Freshfields advised Maple Bank on the legality of cum-ex transactions. The lender also made headlines in 2008 when it engineered Porsche’s failed takeover attempt of Volkswagen.

Julian Long