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December 2, 2008 10:44:25 AM CST

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Homes Raided Nationwide in German Tax Fraud Probe

Posted Feb 19, 08 8:23 AM CST in World,  Business 

(Newser) – The fallout from Germany's enormous tax evasion scandal continued yesterday as police began a nationwide raid of the homes and offices of over a hundred people. More than 1,000 rich Germans are suspected of cheating the German treasury out of $5 billion by transferring huge sums to banks and dummy foundations in the tax haven of Liechtenstein. So far the biggest casualty of the affair has been the CEO of Deutsche Post, Europe's largest mail service and the owner of shipping company DHL.

The crackdown began after German intelligence got a tipoff from a man believed to work for a Liechtenstein bank—whom the authorities paid $6.2 million for his trouble. Planning for the operation has been underway since 2006. Investigators say it is only "a question of time" before even more prominent names come to light.

Sources Times (UK), Financial Times (UK)

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The German chancellery, in Berlin. The chancellor's office and the finance ministry helped police to coordinate a massive raid on hundreds of homes and offices implicated in an alleged tax fraud ring.   ((c) mlinksva)
Deutsche Post CEO Klaus Zumwinkel, left, and attorney Margrit Lichtinghagen leave Zumwinkel's home in Cologne, western Germany, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008.The chief prosecutor in Munich Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld...   (Associated Press)
Klaus Zumwinkel, CEO of Deutsche Post World Net,is seen in Bonn, Germany, in this Aug. 3, 2007 file photo. The head of Deutsche Post AG has offered to resign in the wake of allegations that he evaded...   (Associated Press)
Klaus Zumwinkel, CEO of German Deutsche Post World Net, addresses the media during a press conference in Frankfurt, Germany, on Nov. 8, 2007. The head of Deutsche Post AG has offered to resign in the...   (Associated Press)
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Germany • tax evasion • tax fraud • tax • police raids • tax dodge • DHL • Deutsche Post • Liechtenstein



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