A joint operation by Swiss and German police has netted several suspected tax cheats and money launderers, the authorities in the two countries announced on Friday.
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The two forces stepped up checks on road and rail travellers and in airports in the region between the Swiss city of Schaffhausen and the German city of Constance, along the eastern half of Switzerland’s border with Germany.
As a result of the operation, conducted in the week of May 12 to 19, the police took five people in for questioning suspected of intending to defraud the German tax authorities, and found documents concerning 17 million euros (SFr25.8 million) deposited in foreign bank accounts.
Another person was taken in on suspicion of money laundering.
Meanwhile a spokesman for the justice authorities in the German city of Mannheim has confirmed newspaper reports that several clients of the Swiss UBS bank are under investigation for tax fraud, and said that in some of the cases the suspicions had already been found justified.
Investigations have also been launched against two advisers at the UBS branch in Stuttgart, suspected of complicity in the affair. However, the spokesman said that in their case the outcome remained “completely open”.
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