An eight-part European drama series (originally titled Die Affäre Cum-Ex
Inspired by the true events of the "Cum-Ex" tax fraud scandal, which defrauded European treasuries of €146 billion.
- Plot: Follows the masterminds of the fraud and the women from Germany and Denmark determined to bring them to justice.
- Cast: Stars Lisa Wagner, David Dencik, and Karen-Lise Mynster.
Inspired by “Die Cum-Ex-Files” & “Die Akte Scholz” by Oliver Schröm, Research by Christian Salewski and “Det Store Skatterøveri” by Niels Fastrup & Thomas G. Svaneborg, published by Politikens Forlag.
Schomburg says he did not pay close attention when news of the multi-billion Euro scandal first broke – “I thought, oh, it’s just some stupid shit where some rich people stole some money from us,” he says – but Michael Polle, who produces Other People’s Money with Ole Søndberg, urged him to look closer.
“I started to do some research and I found the characters involved in the real case really interesting. I had the feeling it was as if Shakespeare and [German-American director] Lubitsch had teamed up in a writers’ room and created these characters.”
Part of the story revolves around an older tax lawyer, Bernd (Justus von Dohnányi) and his younger counterpart, Sven (Nils Strunk). The duo team up to illegally work the angles on the tax rules. Schomburg’s take was to give their relationship a rom-com spin.
“If you if you look at the structure of the storytelling closely, it is built up a little bit like a romantic comedy,” he says. “They team up together, and this whole process of them forming a company together is a little bit like a marriage and I really wrote that part like a love scene. [Bernd] says: ‘You know, I thought about something, maybe we could form a company together. You don’t have to say yes, immediately. You can think about it.’ [Sven] says: ‘I don’t have to think about it, yes, I do.’”
Tom Tykwer’s X Filme produces with True Content Entertainment and, fittingly for a drama that spans Europe, a host of broadcasters from across the continent. These broadcasters will air the show in their respective countries: ZDF (Germany), DR (Denmark), NRK Norway), SVT (Sweden), RUV (Iceland), YLE (Finland), NPO (Netherlands), VRT (Belgium). Beta Film is distributing and the series is a highlight of its London TV Screenings lineup.
Other People’s Money opens with a man walking into a garage full of expensive cars and lying naked, face down, on the bonnet of one of the luxury automobiles. But that is not a sign of what follows. As the drama unfolds, Schomburg says he set himself a guideline: “I don’t want to show the villains in a sexy way.”
He speaks of a “weird philosophical emptiness” at the heart of the perpetrators of the fraud. “I always asked myself, why are they doing it? They already have a lot of money. Then they get more and then they don’t do anything with it. They just pay it into some bank accounts.”
Making a TV series was the hardest work Schomburg has ever done, he says. “It’s like, okay, episode six is finished, but in one week it’s the deadline for episode seven. It’s crazy industrial work and it’s also nice somehow. You don’t think: ‘Do I feel like writing?’ You get into this industrial process. You just have to do it.”
The story that inspired Other People’s Money is public record. For Schomburg, a tale of greed and disregard for the wider population is actually inspiring given the actions of the people who came together to expose the fraud.
“It’s possible to think that the financial markets are not just there for themselves or for some rich people, they are there to serve us,” he explains. “I also tried to convey this idea that now is the time to think in a collective kind of way. There are some very inspiring people who show us that we can fight and we can win.”
