Animosity between Germany and Schweiz keeps growing

[RoyBatty]

This German raid on Credit Suisse probably will not win friends either.

Israel must be feeling hungry again and the hedge fund speculators are also demanding to be paid so the German authorities are shaking pennies out of people's pockets.......

Prosecutors in Germany have stormed Credit Suisse bank branches as part of a probe into a tax evasion case that threatens to strain the country's ties with Switzerland.

According to the prosecutor's office in Dusseldorf, some 159 investigators were launching a sweeping raid on 13 branches of the Credit Suisse bank on Wednesday to investigate allegations that the bank's employees may have helped German clients evade due taxes.

Dusseldorf Prosecutor Johannes Mocken told AFP that the investigation "targeted Credit Suisse staff suspected of having assisted tax fraud by clients."

Meanwhile, the Switzerland-based bank refused to disclose any further information regarding the raids, arguing that "As it is an ongoing investigation, we cannot provide more information," AFP reported.

The tax fraud allegations first surfaced in February when officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia gained access to CDs containing information about 1,100 wealthy Germans who allegedly refrained from paying tax with the aiding and abetting of the bank's staff.

German prosecutors have called on all suspected tax-evaders to come forward before they are persecuted by investigators.

According to a spokesman for Dusseldorf prosecutors, the sum total of hidden accounts in Credit Suisse bank has been estimated at around EUR 1.2 billion and authorities are trying to recover up to EUR 400 million as payable taxes.

Meanwhile, Swiss authorities criticized the move as being provocative, saying that the purchase of the CDs that detail clients' accounts as well as the ongoing raids threatens diplomatic ties with Germany.

Credit Suisse and fellow Swiss private bank UBS AG (UBS) have come under immense pressure from foreign authorities who aim to crack down on Switzerland's banking system over lost revenue caused by tax-evading citizens.

http://presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=13...onid=351020604

[antonio]

Swiss is a curious (and lovely) country. But its wealthy it's based on some things and structures more or less endangered at modern times like quartzless-nukeless clocks and bank secrecy.

[Agrippa]

If you have a taxation system and the "small people" can't avoid it just like that, I see no reason to open the gates for the richer ones to "save" their money from the state, because in the end, what they don't pay will be absent in other areas - some quite important.

Obviously, in a better financial-economic system, we could do different things, but in any case, tax fraud is a crime and I don't see any reason why some states or banks should profit from that, it is obviously absurd and was tolerated too long...

The question is just whether all such countries and banks will be targeted, or only the Swiss, that must be carefully looked at.