Sanjay Shah, the founder of former hedge fund Solo Capital, has launched an appeal against his 12-year prison sentence in Denmark over a dividend tax fraud scheme that cost the country's treasury more than DKK9bn ($1.35bn), according to a report by Bloomberg.

The 56-year-old British trader appeared before Copenhagen's High Court on Tuesday seeking to overturn his 2024 conviction for serious fraud. Prosecutors accused Shah of orchestrating thousands of fraudulent dividend tax refund applications between 2012 and 2015, as part of the wider Cum-Ex trading scandal that has implicated banks, traders and financial institutions across Europe.

Shah has consistently denied wrongdoing, maintaining that his trading activities exploited legal loopholes rather than constituting fraud. His defence is expected to draw on a separate London civil court ruling in 2025, in which Denmark's tax authority failed to establish deceit in proceedings against Shah and other defendants. The UK court also criticised weaknesses in the authority's controls over tax refunds.

The original Danish court found that Shah played a central role in developing and operating the scheme, including using software to increase the volume of refund claims. The judge concluded that more than 80% of the proceeds flowed to Shah, who has remained in Danish custody since his extradition from Dubai in 2023.

The case forms part of a broader investigation into dividend tax refund schemes that cost Denmark an estimated DKK12.7bn. Two other traders have been convicted in connection with the scandal, including former Solo Capital associate Anthony Mark Patterson, who received an eight-year sentence in 2024.

The appeal is scheduled to involve 23 court hearings, with a verdict expected in spring 2027.