Germany’s Scholz questioned over handling of tax scam

BERLIN (AP) — German leader Olaf Scholz has denied intervening on behalf of a private bank embroiled in a tax evasion scam when he was mayor of the northern city of Hamburg. Allegations of possible wrongdoing have dogged Scholz since before he took office as chancellor last year. Scholz insisted in testimony Friday to Hamburg state lawmakers that the meetings he held in 2016 and 2017 with a representative of private bank M.M. Warburg were above board. At the time the bank had been ordered to repay millions of euros (dollars) in tax refunds it had wrongly claimed for share trades. Soon after the meetings, Hamburg officials dropped demands for Warburg to repay 47 million euros. Scholz told lawmakers “there was no political intervention whatsoever.”