Germany May Buy Stolen Swiss Bank Account Data, Merkel Says

[guest]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would be willing to buy stolen information relating to Swiss bank accounts to crack down on tax dodgers, sparking dissension in her government and criticism in Switzerland.


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[bizman]

The Germans are going nuts with the crack down of Swiss bank accounts, I don't hope that any of the sorry thifs ever will sell the information they may have to the German government as per below:


Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would be willing to buy stolen information relating to Swiss bank accounts to crack down on tax dodgers, sparking dissension in her government and criticism in Switzerland.


“We should aim to get hold of this data if it’s relevant,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin yesterday.


Her comments risked worsening relations with her neighbor, which were damaged last year in a spat over tax evasion. Information on secret Swiss accounts held by German nationals could yield 200 million euros ($277 million) in lost tax revenue to the German government, Handelsblatt reported yesterday.


Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz said authorities in Switzerland will offer no legal help on tax matters that involve stolen information. Swiss banks, already reeling from attacks on bank secrecy by the U.S., France and Germany, said Merkel’s government shouldn’t pay for stolen data.


“We don’t expect the German government to fence stolen goods and they certainly shouldn’t accept stolen data nor pay for it,” said Swiss Bankers Association spokesman James Nason. “We expect Germany to stick to the established procedures in international agreements negotiated between the two states for handling such cases.”


Merkel’s interest in stolen information prompted criticism from the Free Democratic Party, one of three members of her governing bloc.


“I’ll fully and comprehensively ensure that tax crime is fought, but in talks and negotiations, not in threatening with the cavalry -- and also not in the sense that we would forget our own laws and constitution,” Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who is also FDP leader, told reporters.


Liechtenstein Precedent


Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is weighing whether to obtain data on clients of a Swiss bank that was offered to the government to identify potential tax evaders. The government will base its decision on a similar case two years ago, when German authorities bought client data in Liechtenstein and opened a tax probe, ministry spokesman Michael Offer said.


The case follows Germany’s investigation of suspected tax evasion aimed at hundreds of investors in Liechtenstein, a principality wedged between Switzerland and Austria. That probe began in 2008 using data purchased from a former employee of LGT Group. Crown Prince Alois, who rules Liechtenstein, called the German action an “attack” on his country at the time.


The tax authorities have increasingly been offered secret bank data since the Liechtenstein investigation came to light, Offer said. What authorities do with the information depends on how reliable the data is on examination, he said.


Swiss Law


Switzerland’s Finance Ministry said Jan. 20 that it would draft a law blocking aid to foreign tax authorities in cases involving stolen data after French authorities said they held details on some Swiss accounts, including information allegedly stolen from HSBC Holdings Plc’s private bank in Geneva.


Schaeuble and Merz held “constructive” talks by phone yesterday, when they agreed to work to resolve the matter, Offer said. Germany will make its decision “shortly,” he said.


Swiss-German ties were strained last year when then-Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said Switzerland encouraged Germans to evade taxes. At the time Blick, a Swiss mass-market newspaper, called Steinbrueck one of the “most hated people in Switzerland.”


UBS, HSBC


The Swiss information was drawn primarily from accounts at UBS AG, Handelsblatt reported. The Financial Times Deutschland said the data came from HSBC’s private bank in Geneva. German authorities have been offered data on about 1,300 German holders of Swiss accounts for 2.5 million euros, the FTD said.


The Swiss Bankers Association, which represents more than 300 financial institutions, including UBS and Credit Suisse Group AG, doesn’t have any information on which bank the data comes from, said Nason.


UBS “is not aware of any such information,” spokesman Christoph Meier said yesterday of the Handelsblatt report. “At this point in time this is speculation.”


Steffen Poerner, a spokesman for HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG, the Dusseldorf, Germany-based bank controlled by HSBC, said he couldn’t immediately comment on the report. A spokesman for HSBC in Geneva declined to comment when contacted by phone.