Credit Suisse PCs searched
CREDIT Suisse offices throughout Germany were searched by investigators yesterday as part of a crackdown on tax evaders.
A search involving 13 offices and 150 tax officials focused on unnamed employees at the Swiss bank who may have helped clients evade taxes.
“The searches won’t be finished by the end of today or perhaps not even tomorrow,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said yesterday. “We have computer specialists on location copying the hard drives.”
Credit Suisse spokesman Marc Dosch confirmed the searches, saying: “Credit Suisse is cooperating with authorities. As this concerns an ongoing investigation we are unable to comment further at this moment in time.”
Switzerland’s second-biggest bank maintained that its operations in Germany and elsewhere comply with local laws. It banned employees from travelling to Germany when the investigation was launched.
The probe relates to a CD containing details of 1,500 Credit Suisse clients that fell into the hands of German tax authorities in March.
It is thought thousands of clients have already come forward to repay undeclared tax bills in anticipation of criminal proceedings.