Anne Brorhilker

Anne Brorhilker (born July 30, 1973) is a German jurist who works as a senior public prosecutor at the public prosecutor's office in Cologne. She became internationally known for her investigations into the CumEx fraud. In April 2024, she applied for dismissal from her civil servant position in order to work for the consumer financial lobby group Finanzwende as managing director.

Life and career

Brorhilker studied law at the University of Bochum from 1993, where she also passed her first state examination in law. This was followed by a legal clerkship in Dortmund. Since 2002, she has worked at the public prosecutor's office in Cologne, where she moved to the specialist department for combating tax evasion in 2009.

CumEx investigations

Brorhilker's first CumEx case began in the summer of 2013. In 2014, she had a worldwide raid carried out with great success.

In 2017, she became head of the tax department with a focus on CumEx proceedings.

Brorhilker's investigations led to the first CumEx ruling in spring 2020. For the first time, a court ruled that CumEx is illegal. Until now, many perpetrators had relied on supposed legal loopholes in their transactions. And indeed: for decades, legislators and tax authorities had not succeeded in stopping CumEx. In 2019, Brorhilker's test case for a landmark judgment with two key witnesses began at Cologne Regional Court. The aim was to clarify whether the CumEx system is illegal, i.e. criminal. She and her team managed to force the perpetrators to come clean. They interrogate the key witnesses for hundreds of hours. An industry comes to light that has been able to exert influence for years - on parliaments, the judiciary, universities and public opinion. And: on the legislator. In the spring of 2020, the Cologne Regional Court handed down a verdict that was clear: cum-ex is illegal.

The trial also revealed that the Supreme Tax Authority has had a list of 566 potential CumEx fraudsters since the law was amended in 2009. This list was sent to the Ministry unseen and was also filed there unseen. BaFin had been aware of this since 2007, but did not inform Brorhilker either. She had to do years of detailed work to find the perpetrators herself. In 2016, Brorhilker came across an ominous proximity between the multi-billion-dollar industry and politics during investigations into Warburg Bank, as justified tax reclaims were suddenly dropped by the tax office. With her work, the public prosecutor has broken with a seemingly common practice that financial crime can be bought off with fines.

In the same year as the trial at Cologne Regional Court, the Federal Supreme Court classified CumEx as criminal tax evasion. Of the proceedings against 1,800 defendants nationwide, 1,700 are being conducted under her leadership (as of August 2023).

In March 2021, Brorhilker was promoted to Head of Department H, consisting of four CumEx departments.

Awards

In 2021, Bloomberg named Brorhilkers one of the "50 Most Influential People" in the finance category. In the same year, Brorhilkers proceedings before the Federal Court of Justice in the Cum-Ex case were awarded the Most Important Court Case of the Year Award by Global Investigations Review magazine.