The Liechtenstein LGT bank controversy continues. Remember that a disgruntled former computer tech stole a number of account documents from the bank run by the principality that showed what appears to be a pervasive pattern of facilitating tax evasion. The documents ended up in the hands of German government officials, who shared relevant ones with the US and other countries' tax administrators. From that has come a focus on the issue within the IRS and in Congress, leading to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report and hearings yesterday.
The German court today convicted a 66 year old real estate mogul of tax evasion in connection with the Liechtenstein LGT Group bank scandal, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence for evading 7.5 million Euros in tax and was required to pay 7.5 million euros to charities. See First German Convicted in Tax Case on Liechtenstein, Bloomberg. com. Germany has conducted a number of raids, and a number of taxpayers have turned themselves in voluntarily (presumably suspecting that they will be found out one way or another). See Germany Punishes First of Liechtenstein Tax Dodgers, Deutsche Welle, July 18, 2008.
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