Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

Tycoon gets suspended sentence in Liechtenstein tax trial

A 66-year-old real estate tycoon was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence Friday in the first case brought to justice in Germany in connection with a major Liechtenstein tax evasion scandal.

Published: 18 July 2008 14:08 CEST

Tycoon gets suspended sentence in Liechtenstein tax trial

Elmar now knows where the Kasse is. Photo: DPA

Elmar Schulte, from the western city of Bad Homburg, was found guilty of six counts of tax evasion after depositing several million euros in Liechtenstein and failing to declare the interest made. He had made a full confession and already paid €7.6 million in back taxes and fines to German tax authorities.

According to the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, German tax authorities have already recovered some €110 million in unpaid taxes connected with investments in the tiny Alpine principality, known for its banking secrecy. Public prosecutors are currently investigating 350 cases linked to the tax scandal, with 420 further suspects still waiting to be interviewed, according to the newspaper.

The inquiry, which started in Germany in February, led to allegations against the former head of the German postal service, Klaus Zumwinkel, and hundreds of other wealthy investors whose names appeared on a client list of the Liechtenstein bank LGT.

The German government has admitted paying more than €4 million to an informer for the client data from LGT. German authorities have also made the list of some 1,400 names available to other nations.

The United States, Britain, Australia, Italy, France, Sweden, Canada, New Zealand, Greece and Spain have all said they too are hunting for taxpayers hiding their money in Liechtenstein.

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

SHOW COMMENTS

Url copied to clipboard!