"Credit Suisse raided in tax probe" by International Herald Tribune | July 15, 2010
BERLIN — Credit Suisse’s offices in Germany were searched yesterday as part of an investigation into allegations its employees might have helped clients evade taxes, prosecutors in Dusseldorf said.
About 150 police officers, prosecutors, and tax inspectors searched all 13 Credit Suisse offices and branches in Germany, said Johannes Mocken, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. Mocken said it would take weeks to sift through the files that were seized.
He said the authorities are looking into the accounts of 1,100 customers.
Credit Suisse said it is cooperating with authorities but declined to comment further.
UBS, the largest Swiss bank, avoided prosecution in the United States last year after admitting it had helped clients evade taxes from 2000 to 2007. It paid a $780 million fine and agreed to disclose the account details of more than 4,700 clients.
Related: Lying Looters Large and Small: Secret Stashes and Secret Deals
Of all the European Union member states, Germany has taken the toughest stance against tax evaders. German officials have called for a strict policy that would pressure Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein to end banking secrecy.
Berlin’s position led to tension with Switzerland earlier this year. Swiss authorities were furious after Wolfgang Schauble, Germany’s finance minister, agreed to pay a Swiss bank employee $3.2 million for a CD that allegedly contained the names of 1,500 Germans with Swiss bank accounts who might have evaded taxes in their own country.
German authorities also bought a disc containing information on thousands of clients of UBS and Credit Suisse that was offered to the state of Baden-Wurttemberg in February.
A former finance minister, Peer Steinbruck, also had no qualms about paying for information on German taxpayers with accounts in Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. In 2008, Germany purchased data on alleged tax evaders from a banker in Liechtenstein. That caused a diplomatic flap....
Some German politicians have challenged the way the government has obtained the information. The Free Democrats, partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government, have said they are uneasy about buying stolen data.
Hey, LAWS are NOT FOR GOVERNMENTS!
By buying information, party officials say, the government benefits from a crime, and may encourage more people to steal information in the hope of selling it.
That is what government is, yeah.
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