Cum-Ex Lawyer Who Mocked ‘Dirty’ Lehman Secret Goes on Trial (2)

A court in Germany’s financial hub Frankfurt is about to shed more light on how one of the world’s most prestigious law firms and a top attorney became instrumental to Europe’s biggest tax scandal.

Ulf Johannemann, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s former global head of tax, was a key legal adviser on “Cum-Ex” — a ploy that gamed the system to pass vast sums from Germany’s treasury into the hands of scores of investors and banks.

On Thursday, he stood before the court charged with helping now-defunct lender Maple Bank GmbH set up a series of transactions that alone ...