A Credit Suisse bank is pictured in Frankfurt July 14, 2010
For two years now, German authorities have been on a crusade against tax evasion, ratcheting up the pressure on suspected dodgers and striking fear into the heart of anyone still hiding money abroad. On Wednesday, renowned bank Credit Suisse became their latest target, when 150 German police officers, tax officials and prosecutors swooped on all 13 offices of the bank's German subsidiary as part of an inquiry into whether bank employees had helped customers evade taxes. The authorities seized dozens of computer disks, data copied from hard drives and more than 100 boxes of files. "The raids were very successful," says Düsseldorf public prosecutor Johannes Mocken.
Mocken and other prosecutors in the western German city of Düsseldorf were acting on information they had found on a CD that the state of North Rhine-Westphalia's finance ministry had bought for a reported $3.2 million from an unnamed informer in February. The CD contains details of 1,100 Credit Suisse customers who are suspected tax dodgers — according to German media reports, together they owe up to $1.6 billion in unpaid taxes. Prosecutors say they also got hold of a PowerPoint presentation from the same source that "provided strong indications that some Credit Suisse employees were given training into how to advise clients to evade paying taxes," says Mocken. The authorities say they still don't know the names of the employees who may be implicated in the tax fraud inquiry, but they're confident further analysis of the confiscated material will reveal their identities.
Credit Suisse insists it is cooperating with German officials. "We can confirm the raids took place [and] we're working very closely with the German authorities," Marc Dosch, spokesman for Credit Suisse in Zürich, tells Time. "Credit Suisse has a solid compliance regime and we adhere to all the rules and regulations in the countries in which we operate," he adds, declining to comment on the details of Wednesday's raids. When Credit Suisse published its first quarter results in April, it said it had "reason to believe" that the bank had been the victim of data theft, based on the fact that it had received information from some of its customers who'd been contacted by the police. Switzerland's second biggest bank launched an internal probe and filed criminal charges against the as-yet-unidentified individuals who they believe committed the theft.
Germany has been cracking down hard on suspected tax evaders since 2008, when its foreign intelligence agency bought a CD containing stolen data from a former employee of Liechtenstein's biggest bank, LGT. The resulting investigation involved more than 900 wealthy Germans suspected of tucking away millions of undeclared dollars — including Klaus Zumwinkel, the former chief executive of Germany's postal group Deutsche Post. (Zumwinkel pleaded guilty, and received a 2-year suspended prison sentence and a $1.3 million fine.)
Germany's practice of purchasing stolen information has proved controversial, straining relations with Switzerland and sparking debate at home. Some German politicians claim that by buying stolen bank data, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government could be seen as benefiting from a crime and might encourage other people to steal information in order to sell it to authorities at a hefty price. But Merkel has publicly supported the move, arguing that it helps track down tax evaders and enables the state to recoup millions in lost tax revenues: "If this data is relevant then our goal should be to acquire it."
The recently toughened stance on tax dodgers has prompted thousands of terrified Germans to turn themselves in to the authorities in order to avoid prosecution. "We've had a flood of new cases since February — more than 50 Germans have confessed that they've evaded taxes, involving up to $40 million in unpaid tax revenues," says Michael Weber-Blank, an attorney specialising in tax evasion in Hanover. He blames the country's high income tax rate — 43% for top earners — and the fact that tax evasion is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a hefty fine (unlike in Switzerland, where it's considered a civil matter) for pushing wealthy Germans to hide their money abroad. "Many European banks, including banks in Switzerland and tax havens like Austria, Liechtenstein and Monaco, help German clients conceal their money," says Max Weber-Blank. "Tax evasion is a roaring trade in Germany."
Germany and Switzerland agreed to a new double taxation treaty in March that seeks to clarify tax disclosure rules for individuals with financial interests in both countries. And under increasing pressure from other European countries and the U.S., Switzerland has watered down its controversial bank secrecy law. In June, the Swiss parliament backed a treaty under which Swiss banking giant UBS gave the U.S. government the details of up to 4,450 American clients suspected of evading taxes. But German legal experts believe that, in practice, Switzerland is still dragging its heels. "The Swiss authorities use delaying tactics and they're reluctant to hand over information about their bank customers to the German authorities," says attorney Weber-Blank.
For now, prosecutors are poring over the material that was seized in the raids on Credit Suisse's German offices, with the inquiry set to last several months. In the meantime, more and more of Germany's tax evaders may find they have nowhere left to hide.