Bank clients probed by German tax office after Cayman Islands files stolen
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| Published on Tuesday, April 3, 2007 |
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By Jacob Greber
ZURICH, Switzerland (Bloomberg): Several Julius Baer Holding AG customers are being investigated by German tax authorities, who are using information sent to them by a former Cayman Islands bank employee accused of stealing secret client files.
The documents were stolen in 2002 by a former employee of a Julius Baer unit in the Cayman Islands, Martin Somogyi, a spokesman for the Zurich-based bank, said on Monday in a telephone interview. The theft is "regrettable" and involves a "relatively small number of customers," Somogyi said.
The former staffer sent details including client addresses and account balances of $5 million to over $100 million to Germany's tax office, which late last year opened a probe into possible tax evasion by "individual customers," SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday. The data theft, which occurred outside Switzerland, would be illegal under Swiss banking secrecy laws.
The clients, who may be forced to repay "millions in taxes" and in some cases could lose their entire investments, regard themselves as victims of a conflict between the bank and its former employee, the Swiss Sunday newspaper said.
In recent weeks and months, the unidentified person has "conducted psychological warfare" by sending bank clients anonymous letters signed by "Teddy Baer" or the "tax fraud revealer," SonntagsZeitung said.
The newspaper added that the former employee's letters "appear to be the work of a disturbed person." Julius Baer shares fell 1.1 Swiss francs, or 0.7 percent, to 164.7 francs at 12:25 p.m. in Zurich. The bank has a market value of about 18.4 billion francs ($15.1 billion).
The bank has reconstructed the stolen data, which covers the period between 1997 and 2002, Somogyi added.
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