German authorities launch massive tax evasion probe

In one of the largest tax scandals ever in Germany, more than a thousand people may soon find the tax man knocking at their door. The investigation comes after the German government bought a controversial CD of stolen tax information from a disgruntled employee of Switzerland's second largest bank, Credit Suisse.

"The Credit Suisse clients have investments in total of around 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion)," said Dirk Negenborn, a spokesman for the state prosecutor's office in the western German city of Duesseldorf, which is leading the probe.

The Swiss bank has repeatedly said that it has no idea whether the confidential banking data on the CD contains names of its customers.

"We have zero facts. We do not know whether it (the CD) has anything to do with Credit Suisse, or our clients," said the bank's CEO, Brady Dougan.  

Credit Suísse manages about 635 billion euros for its private banking customers worldwide.   Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  'We have zero facts,' claims Credit Suisse CEO Dougan

As the probe expands, people have turned themselves in

Several German newspapers have reported that the amount of back taxes owed on the money allegedly put aside by the suspected tax cheats could top one billion euros.

The man who sold the data is believed to have been paid 2.5 million euros, plus a figure equivalent to the taxes owed on that amount, so as not to be a tax cheat himself.

Due to the different domiciles listed on the CD, the investigation has now spread from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which initially bought the disk, to other states, including Hessen, Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg and the Rhineland-Palatinate.

News of the CD alone has led thousands of people in Germany to voluntarily report themselves to the tax authorities in the hope of getting off with lighter penalties.

gb/dpa/AFP/Reuters

Editor: Susan Houlton