A British hedge fund trader pleaded guilty to allegations he helped swindle Denmark out of about 8.4 billion kroner ($1.2 billion) in a massive Cum-Ex scandal that rocked the Nordic country.
Anthony Patterson, who was hired by Solo Capital's Sanjay Shah in March 2013, admitted to charges of complicity in serious fraud, his defense lawyer said in a Danish court on Thursday.
The confession is a major win for Denmark, which has been haunted by the Cum-Ex scandal for years, as the nation seeks to hold culprits to account and reclaim 12.7 billion kroner it lost in the scam. So far,
Cum-Ex was a controversial trading strategy in which a global network of bankers, lawyers and agents exploited loopholes on dividend payouts across multiple European countries to reap duplicate tax refunds.
Patterson worked for Shah first as an employee at Solo Capital and from early 2014 via a consultancy in Dubai, Patterson said, answering questions in court. He assisted with around 3,000 dividend tax refund applications to the Danish treasury between December 2013 and August 2015.
He only became fully aware of the trading strategy in late 2013 when helping to plan the upcoming dividend season, Patterson said. When he queried the structure internally he was told there was legal opinion to support it.
In addition to his salary, Patterson said he received about 100 million kroner of the dividend refunds, a key driver for him to continue working for Shah despite concerns over the scheme.
Patterson's role was to help plan future deals and handle relationships with clients, but he said that he acted as an intermediate only, with decisions around allocations made by Shah.
The prosecutor claimed Patterson helped defraud the Danish state of about 9 billion kroner, but the trader admitted only to a lower amount, saying he wasn't aware of the scheme in his first months at Solo.
Patterson's confession comes less than two weeks before Shah, dubbed the mastermind behind the scam, stands trial charged with fraud.
Patterson was
