Translated material
Switzerland warns
The German Ministry of Finance was offered bank secrecy
Prices for information about tax sinners secretly placing their capital bypassing financial authorities are falling. A Swiss citizen, who appeared on the tax wanted list in Wuppertal, offered the German Ministry of Finance information about the accounts of one and a half thousand Germans who hide their money in the banks of the Alpine Confederation. He asked for 2.5 million euros for his hot product.Something similar already happened in Germany about two years ago. In the spring of 2008, the Federal Intelligence Service paid about 5 million euros in cash to a former employee of the Liechtenstein bank LGT, owned by the princely family. In return, the financial spies received a CD with data on 1,400 accounts of German citizens. Then the German fighters of the invisible banking front were proud of their find, assuring that this investment would bring the German treasury at least 3.4 billion euros, which were hidden in the Principality of Liechtenstein thanks to its special tax regime. In the very first days of the scandal, hundreds of legal and physical tax sinners, who, by the way, had not yet been named, came to the financial authorities with confessions and large sums. The most famous suspect was then the chief postmaster of Germany - the head of the Deutsche Post concern Klaus Zumwinkel, who had defrauded his own state of a million euros. At that time, there were many critics of this intelligence approach to obtaining information, and the Liechtenstein rulers even raised the issue to the political level, forcing German Chancellor Angela Merkel to make comments. In addition to the head of the Deutsche Post, hundreds of famous and wealthy Germans were in the field of detectives: according to the administrative court in Bochum, over a thousand search warrants were issued.
Past experience with buying stolen bank secrets makes the Germans hesitate. Moreover, this time we are not talking about a scandal with a dwarf principality, but about interstate relations between Germany and Switzerland. When the Germans checked the Liechtenstein LGT, the Swiss media were indignant, the most desperate publications mercilessly rubbed salt on historical wounds, recalling their Nazi past to their neighbors. This time, the Germans did not rush recklessly, as critics of deals with dishonest bank employees said two years ago, to buy up stolen goods. Moreover, leading politicians of the ruling Christian Democratic Union have already spoken out against the purchase of data protected by bank secrecy. The opposition, represented by the Social Democrats, on the contrary, demands the same approach to the problem as in 2008, i.e. Don't hesitate to take it while it's available. The then Minister of Finance and Social Democrat Peer Steinbrück supported the attack on the tax oases and even demanded a “cavalry attack on the Indians.” By the latter he meant the Swiss.
This time the Social Democrats are taking a purely arithmetic approach. The proposed laser disk contains sensitive data that could lead to the detection of numerous tax evasion crimes, said Nicolette Kressl, speaker for financial policy of the SPD faction in the Bundestag. The Sunday edition of the daily newspaper Welt quotes her word for word: “If for the price of 2.5 million euros 100-200 million euros of taxes can be refunded, then the government should not hesitate.” The deputy head of the parliamentary party faction of the Social Democrats, Joachim Poss, also speaks out in favor of acquiring bank data. He supported his opinion with the argument that in no case should one focus on the “electoral clientele” of the CDU/CSU and the Free Democratic Party, which are part of the ruling coalition. After all, as a rule, they are the owners of large fortunes, Mr. Poss noted, not without a hint.
The Free Democrats (FDP), who profiled themselves in last fall's parliamentary elections as the main proponents of reducing the tax burden in Germany, approach the problem of buying up stolen property differently. “The Finance Minister would do well to first examine whether such an acquisition would be legally sound,” Volker Wissing, the head of the Bundestag's finance committee and representing the FDP, said on Sunday. More conservative politicians from both ruling parties demand that any deals with criminal elements be abandoned. “This is stolen goods,” Christian Democratic politician Michael Fuchs told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “In this way we would encourage thieves.”
In the heat of discussion, politicians do not deny themselves good advice to all tax sinners without exception - to immediately go where they should confess, without waiting for the Minister of Finance to decide on a dubious purchase. Personally, the head of the Ministry of Finance, Christian Democrat Wolfgang Schäuble, has so far managed to diplomatically remain in the shadow of the scandal. He stated that he was “incompetent” regarding the possible purchase of banking data, since tax processes are the responsibility of the federal states. True, “in important cases” the federal center can also get involved in this, a ministry representative noted. And a disk containing the data of over a thousand wealthy sinners is “important.”
Meanwhile, in the Alpine Confederation, new grapes of anger against Germany and the Germans are ripening. The Swiss Ministry of Finance is waiting for the outcome of the deal between Berlin and the bank fraudster. But the head of the Ministry of Defense, Juli Maurer, said at a forum in Davos that if Germany decides in favor of purchasing dubious information, then “trust in the neighboring country will be undermined.” This should be understood as a warning, the head of the Swiss Ministry of Defense especially emphasized. Minister Maurer is convinced that acquiring stolen data is not the best way to establish relationships between legal states. Following this, German Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg appeared on Swiss television, discussing the problem with his colleague Julie Maurer. The German expressed confidence that no “distortions” would occur in relations between Germany and Switzerland.
Perhaps this time the authorities in Berlin will take into account the precedent in the neighboring country when looking for a solution to buying information about tax sinners. Recently something similar was proposed to the French government. Politicians in Paris categorically rejected any possibility of a deal with dishonest bank employees. The French handed over the laser disk with secret information to Swiss officials.