Anne Brorhilker announced Monday she was stepping down from her position as head of a team of 30 prosecutors in Cologne, Germany. Brorhilker has been involved in investigating the cum-ex scandal since 2013, which has led to more than 1700 individuals being accused and has resulted in billions of euros in costs.

The scandal involved a share-trading scheme in which investors manipulated a dividend tax loophole to receive multiple reimbursements—more than they would otherwise receive. The fraud case also implicated current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was made to testify as a witness in 2022.

In an exclusive interview with Westdeustcher Rundfunk (WDR), Brorhilker stated: “I have always put my heart and soul into being a public prosecutor, especially in the area of white-collar crime, but I am not at all satisfied with the way financial crime is prosecuted in Germany.” She claims that Germany’s approach to combating financial crime suffers from structural deficits, citing a lack of cooperation and centralization worsened by the federal system.

When asked about the relationship between these structural deficits and the involvement of senior-level politicians such as Olaf Scholz in the scandal, Brorhilker claimed that the systemic issue of lobbying allows financial institutions to further their interests in legal proceedings. Such lobbying activities are only registered for the Bundestag, the German Parliament, not for ministers or administration.

Brorhilker has announced that she will campaign for such reforms in the fight against financial crime as director of the NGO Finanzwende in Berlin.