Guenther Klar will be the first person to be tried out of nine from the United States and Britain charged by the Danish state prosecutor with defrauding Danish tax authorities in the "cum-ex" tax fraud scheme, involving dividend taxes.

"According to the prosecution, the accused is the central mastermind behind the dividend tax fraud involving the company Salgado Capital," Anders Møllmann, special prosecutor at the State Prosecutor for Special Crime, said ahead of the trial.

The scheme involved submitting wrongful applications to the Danish tax authority for dividend-tax refunds based on fictitious stock trades worth billions of Danish crowns on behalf of investors and companies from around the world.

The "cum-ex" trading scheme resulted in the Danish state losing more than 12.7 billion crowns in total. It is also being investigated by authorities in Germany, Belgium and Britain.

Two other Britons Sanjay Shah and Antony Mark Patterson, have also been charged by Danish authorities in the case, but their trial has been postponed till Jan. 8, 2024.

Klar worked for Sanjay Shah's hedge fund, Solo Capital, from 2010 to 2012, according to the UK Financial Services.

Guenther Klar was extradited from Belgium in June and denies any wrongdoing, his lawyer told Reuters. The verdict is expected in February next year.

($1 = 7.0574 Danish crowns)

 

(Reporting by Johannes Birkebaek; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

By Johannes Birkebaek