MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Stolen fiscal “wikileaks” earn the German treasury 1.6 billion Euros

Credit Suisse in Germany branches raided on tax evasion probe

German tax authorities recovered 1.6 billion Euros this year from citizens who had stashed their cash in secret accounts in Liechtenstein and Switzerland, according to the weekly Der Spiegel.

They hope to obtain another 200 million Euros next year thanks to secret banking data from both countries which they had acquired relatively cheaply, the weekly said.

In 2008 a former employee of Liechtenstein's biggest bank sold data on client accounts in the secretive Alpine banking haven to the German secret service for five million euros.

The affair triggered a high profile crackdown on tax evasion in Germany, prompting investigations into business executives, sports stars and entertainers, and resulting in the conviction of former Deutsche Post head Klaus Zumwinkel.

Early this year officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia bought a computer disc for a reported 2.5 million Euros with information on secret Swiss accounts.

German authorities last July raided branches of Credit Suisse in Germany as part of a tax evasion probe, sparking tension with Switzerland, which said the data was stolen in violation of its sacrosanct banking secrecy law.

In related news German prosecutors have settled a dispute with a Liechtenstein bank over tax evasion charges involving German nationals.

German prosecutors have dropped a lawsuit against a Liechtenstein bank over charges of aiding and abetting tax evasion. The state-owned LGT bank agreed to a settlement with a record 50 million Euros.

The case was triggered when German tax authorities bought several CDs from informants in Liechtenstein, who had copied and stolen data on German tax evaders hiding their money in the small alpine tax haven.

Aside from hunting down German tax evaders with the material, prosecutors also began proceedings against the Liechtenstein bank itself for being an accessory to tax evasion. The bank's consultants were in effect accused of consciously advising and assisting wealthy Germans to evade paying taxes.

In the settlement with the German prosecutors, the LGT bank has agreed to pay some 46 million Euros. Another 3.6 million Euros will have to be shouldered by around 45 individual employees of the bank.

The purchase of the leaked data was highly controversial in Germany as the material had initially been stolen in Liechtenstein and subsequently offered to Germany for the price of several million euros. In a similar case, Germany bought a CD containing lists of tax evaders hiding their money in Switzerland's Credit Suisse bank.

However Germany's constitutional court has approved the practice of using stolen data to track down tax dodgers.