Case Study: The Cum-Cum and Cum-Ex Schemes

This COFFERS case study explores the biggest tax robbery in history. The Cum-Cum and Cum-Ex schemes cost European treasuries a combined sum over €50 billion. The case outlines a range of transaction types involved. These sit on a spectrum between the legal, which transgresses the spirit of the law, and the outright criminal. With a focus on Germany and Denmark, the case explores both the conditions of possibility for the trades prolonged persistence without regulatory intervention, and regulatory reactions to it. A key conclusion is the transactions themselves were not overly complex and indecipherable. Rather, elementary weaknesses in Europe’s and member state regulatory apparatus are at fault. Integration across financial and fiscal regulation, greater levels of international information exchange and cooperation, and higher levels of capacity in regulatory authorities are in consequence required. The Cum-Cum and Cum-Ex schemes also make the case for a pan-European
economic crimes unit.