How Investec backed notorious ‘tax evader’

Between 2012 and 2015, Investec backed controversial Dutch stock trader Frank Vogel with up to at least R183bn to facilitate his business, which was allegedly based almost entirely on tax arbitrage schemes. Financial records accessed by amaBhungane suggest this support amounted to almost all the funding Vogel’s company MF Finance enjoyed in the period during which he or his companies faced multiple investigations from tax authorities in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. A trove of confidential documents, exposed in a German leak, lays bare the extent to which Investec was involved in suspect deals worth hundreds of millions of Euros that resulted in European governments being defrauded through a tax scam. AmaBhungane has secured access to the massive leak as a member of a joint effort between newsrooms worldwide. Investec does not appear to be one of the main targets in the German investigations, but details of its involvement are scattered throughout the leak.

Vogel, who incidentally owns a game lodge in Limpopo, is reportedly considered the ‘spiritual father’ of the tax scheme known as CumEx which he pioneered while employed at the Belgian bank Fortis in the early 2000s. The trading ‘strategy’ involves tricking tax authorities into issuing duplicate refunds for dividend withholding tax that had been paid only once, says the amaBhungane report. Various sources in these leaked documents show how Vogel was the major trailblazer in the CumEx industry which, according to some estimates, ultimately cost European governments more than €55bn. Buried deep in the documents there is also an isolated reference to a partnership between Vogel and Investec that was apparently well-known in the CumEx world.

Full amaBhungane report on the Daily Maverick site