8/14/2019 Merkel Ready to Face Swiss Ire Over Stolen Bank Records

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Merkel ready to face Swiss ire over stolenbank recordsBy Gerrit Wiesmann in Berlin and Haig Simonian in Zurich

Published: February 2 2010 02:00 | Last updated: February 2 2010 02:00

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, yesterday risked a dispute with neighbouringSwitzerland when she signalled she was in favour of Berlin buying records stolen from a

Swiss bank in a move to snare German tax-evaders.

"It should be our aim to get hold of this data - if the data is relevant," Ms Merkel saidfollowing revelations that an informant was offering the authorities records on 1,000-1,500Germans with accounts in Switzerland.

Her remarks flew in the face of the words of caution from Swiss - and even German -politicians, who over the weekend warned that the Berlin government should not rewardcriminal behaviour by buying stolen data.

Switzerland said that Hans-Rudolf Merz, the Swiss finance minister, had noted in a call withWolfgang Schäuble, his German counterpart, that the two countries held "different legalpositions" about the use of stolen material.

Mr Merz said that the Swiss government would not be able to provide administrativeassistance to any German inquiries based on stolen data, as Bern believed buying the materialviolated public policy and good faith.

Germany's willingness to ignore such warnings follows the government's pursuit - beginningtwo years ago - of hundreds of suspected tax-evaders following the purchase of data stolenfrom a Liechtenstein bank.

Ms Merkel's then coalition of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and thecentre-left Social Democratic party (SPD) did not shirk a very public dispute with the tinyAlpine principality and started pushing for a global crackdown on tax havens.

Although numerous members of her new coalition of Christian Democrats and pro-businessFree Democrats have warned against buying stolen data again, Ms Merkel yesterdayintervened to try to quell the controversy.

Officials said that tax experts in the German states were still looking at samples of the data.Berlin might net hundreds of millions in back taxes and fines in return for paying "about

€2.5m" ($3.5m, £2.2m) for the data, they said.

8/14/2019 Merkel Ready to Face Swiss Ire Over Stolen Bank Records

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