German authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia have purchased more stolen data, this time of clients at Swiss bank Julius Bär, in a hunt for tax cheats.
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A spokeswoman from the Münster public prosecutor’s office confirmed a report on Monday that authorities bought a CD for about €1.5 million (SFr2 million) last summer. It contained 200 sets of data but how many clients were affected was not clear.
The spokeswoman gave no details about the seller but said the seller gave the money to charity.
It is at least the fourth time that Germany has bought such data. In February, North Rhine-Westphalia, with the help of the federal government, purchased another CD of stolen bank data for €2.5 million. That disc contained details on approximately 1,500 suspected tax cheats with assets hidden in Switzerland.
Lower Saxony also bought a similar CD for €185,000, that state’s finance minister confirmed in June. Two years ago, Germany bought information on taxpayers who had money hidden in banks located in Liechtenstein.
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