German government paid to get tax dodge secrets

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

BERLIN (AFP) - The German government said Saturday that it paid an informer to get Liechtenstein bank details on a multi-billion-euro tax evasion scandal that has rocked the country's business elite.

After one top company chief resigned and with hundreds of wealthy Germans now reportedly under suspicion, a bank in the principality that has built its reputation on banking secrecy said German authorities were working from a list of its clients stolen by an employee in 2002.

Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck approved the payment to the informant, his department said in a statement, without confirming a Der Spiegel magazine report that five million euros (7.3 million dollars) was handed over.

Steinbrueck "was kept informed of the budgetary consequences and gave his approval to the payment" to the secret informed, a ministry statement said.

The minister "had no knowledge of the details of the action undertaken nor the accounts and the names," said the statement.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080216/ts_afp/germanyliechtensteintaxfraudprobe

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. How about that! Just the level of probity and the purposeful pursuit of

very rich tax evaders and fraudsters for which our successive UK governments are fabled throughout the land! Heads roll here mightily... 'cep the perps very seldom seem to rise above the level of benefit fraudsters.