usnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from usnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A former tax inspector was sentenced to over eight years in prison in one of Germany's biggest frauds. Hanno Berger fled to Switzerland in 2012 before being extradited to Germany.
A German tax lawyer, painted by politicians as the mastermind behind one of the country s biggest post-war frauds, was on Tuesday sentenced to eight years in prison after a landmark trial.
Hanno Berger, a 72-year-old former tax inspector turned legal tax expert, is the most high profile professional to be convicted after sprawling investigations into the cum-ex dividend stripping scheme, which some experts estimate has cost German taxpayers around 10 billion euros ($10.5 billion). Berger, who fled to Switzerland in 2012 before being extradited to Germany in February, was also ordered to repay more than 13 million euros as he became the 11th man convicted in Germany over the scandal after an eight-month trial.