BERLIN: Foreign banks from Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Luxembourg – are being investigated by German state prosecutors for tax evasion. There are a total of 57 lenders on the list, according to a report by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
German media have reported that German authorities have already negotiated fines with banks in around 10 cases, amounting to a total of around €120m. The biggest single fine came from the Basler Kantonalbank, Switzerland, which handed over €37.1m.
According to reports, the Luxembourg bank BCEE has paid €14m, while the Deutsche Bank in Switzerland has paid some €10m. On top of that, in one particularly egregious case, a bank is believed to be negotiating a fine of around €60m.
The Austria-based Akte Walser Privatbank confirmed that it had paid its fine of €5.4m, and that its policies had become tighter since the case.
As reported by Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, paying closer attention to voluntary declarations has become German prosecutors’ new favourite method of tracking down tax evaders.
The former tax evaders are then questioned for more information about the banks. In an email to DW, however, a spokesman for the Cologne state prosecutors said they could “neither comment on nor confirm” the Süddeutsche Zeitung report and that they did not record statistics about voluntary declarations.
